(1) Could you tell our readers about your band Mezzrow? – What kind
of music do you perform, when was it established, etc.?
UP: First of all… Cool to be in “Death by Music”! Well, we have always
been inspired by the Bay Area Thrash Metal scene. Especially back in the
eighties. But nowadays we have mixed the American/SF-sound with some
Swedish melodic touch. Still VERY Thrash though!
CW: …and still haven’t written any ballads. haha
(2) Which bands or artists inspired you to play music?
UP: From the beginning (70’s), definitely Kiss, Sweet, Deep Purple and
Status Quo. Also early punk bands later on like Ramones, Pistols and
Sham 69. Then metal came along in the beginning of the eighties with
bands like Motörhead, Maiden and Priest and also Thrash and Speed
Metal with Metallica, Slayer, Venom and Mercyful Fate. So from there on,
that was our thing! When the Bay Area exploded with cool bands in the
mid-eighties, it was a natural thing for us to hook on that. The original
scene with Exodus and Metallica inspired bands during the second wave
like Vio-lence, Forbidden, Testament (Legacy), Mercenary, Heathen and
Death Angel. All awesome bands and we admired them all!
CW: Exactly. My first record was Love Gun with Kiss, but very soon after
that the hard rock and then metal scene exploded. I’ve always been a huge
fan of Black Sabbath. Actually I like all eras of Sabbath, even if the first with
Ozzy has a special magical touch to it. I was a typical metal kid when I
grew up and listened to almost every band I could get my hands on. When
thrash metal began to rise that was a major thing for me and I remember I
almost stopped listening to other genres for several years. Back then the
hard rock and metal scene had emerged into some kind of glam/hair rock
and that didn’t appeal to me at all at that time. Nowadays I’ve kind of
rediscovered some of the hard rock albums from that time that I ignored,
often just because I didn’t like the album cover.
(3) Who came up with the cover art for the album Embrace The
Awakening?
UP: The cover art was done by Pär Olofsson (Exodus, Aborted a.o.) and
the idea behind the painting was originally his. We had some other ideas
about the cover artist but we contacted him to see if he had some paintings
that we could use for the new cover. We really think Pär is awesome, so it
felt like the right thing to do. So the cover came before the title, which felt
kind of unusual. We felt that the original painting was a bit dull though, so
we had some ideas that Pär put into action. It turned out exactly as we
wanted!
(4) Who wrote the lyrics for your new album, how did they come to
be?
UP: I write all the lyrics. They are usually very horror orientated with
inspiration from HP Lovecraft and Clive Barker. But for this record the
whole situation in the world of today, and society in general, inspired a lot.
Very metaphorical, but sometimes also very direct.
(5) Who created the logo for the band, and who takes care of the
graphics and the website?
CW: Oh, the logo… In our past the logo always has been a disaster, so
when we started the band we really took out time to get it right this time.
We’ve created a logo that reminds us of how it was supposed to look like in
the old days. A friend of Magnus did the first idea and then a friend of mine
helped us with the final touches. Generally I take care of the website and all
the graphics. I am also the producer and creative mind behind our videos.
This time I’ve worked a lot with AI. I was an early adopter of the new
technique, but it was a struggle to get it right. The evolution in this area is
so fast it’s already now much easier to achieve what I did for our videos.
(6) How many shows have you played? Which type of gigs do you
prefer, whether (Venues or festivals) and which of your performances
would you consider as the best?
UP: It’s a bit difficult to estimate. But we really want to play more
nevertheless. As many other musicians, we prefer both venues and
festivals. Loads of fun doing both and one of our better gigs actually, was
back in 1990 in a very small club together with Hexenhaus and Kazjurol. It
held like 200 people and the place was totally packed and everyone went
nuts! We also did the Keep it true festival back in 2023, which was
awesome, as well as the Tolminator Metalfest in Slovenia and Running
Free festival in Bulgaria. They were all great!
(7) Can you tell us about your New video In Shadows Deep?
CW: It’s our Jack the Ripper song, well you must have one… haha. But it’s
from his point of view, kind of. The storyline is made with AI. I would have
liked to have it more bloody, you know. More blood and gore, but the AI is
restricted so it was very hard to make clips with blood whatsoever. The
song is very heavy and has a little melodic touch to the chorus. I really like
the church bell in the beginning of the song. That’s actually a sample I’ve
been using for like 20 years now and it’s on multiple records I’ve been
producing. haha
(8) Can you tell us about the name of the new album What’s the
Inspiration behind it?
CW: That’s a hard one. This time we didn’t have a song title that was going
to work as an album title, so we went more with the feeling in the painting.
The mother is holding her new born evil child and they all embrace the
awakening.
(9) Can you tell us about the metal scene in Sweden?
CW: I think Uffe is better off to talk about this, but I really like all the new
thrash metal bands from Sweden. It’s kind of a second wave of thrash
metal on the rise. Really cool.
UP: Well, the metal scene in Sweden is really big in general right now.
Especially the thrash scene has exploded, with all the young and promising
bands coming through! Bands like Bloodstain, Hostilia, Disarray, Sarcator,
Eternal Evil, Ominum and many more. Also veterans like us, F.K.Ü and
Methane play a lot. But there are tons of great bands from Swden in all
metal genres and Sweden produces some of the world’s best metal bands
right now. You know; Ghost, Hammerfall, Arch Enemy, In Flames, Europe,
Amon Amarth and Sabaton. Just to name a few.
(10) Do you have endorsements that you want to talk about or share?
CW: Hm, that’s not really my department I’m afraid, as we don’t have any
endorsements for bass. But the guitarists and our drummer have that with
for example ENGL, Seymour Duncan, ESP and LTD guitars, Skull strings,
Elixir strings and Beat Head Drums.
(11) Would you like to share any shows or festivals coming up?
CW: Right now we ́re preparing for our release party at Kaliber Bar in
Uppsala, Sweden on the 15th of November. We also have a gig coming up
in Skövde, Sweden. Then we’re doing some gigs in Germany next year, I
think in April.
(12) How and where can your fans contact you? What about you and
social networks?
CW: We’re att Facebook, Insta, Tiktok and of course our website
mezzrow.black. From there you can reach all of our channels. It’s always
fun to hear from fans, so give us a shout out!
