Hi Perra! What's up in good ol' Sweden? Everything alright in the NOMINON camp?
Perra: Well, at the moment I am a bit sick after the fucking x-mass and new year holidays. But I guess I will get better before Thursday when it's time to rehearse with NOMINON again.
Ok, let's start with your latest record "Recremation"! Man, it's so cool to hear old school sounding death metal from Sweden, which is still in the good old Swedish tradition.
Perra: It's fucking great to hear a lot of people/fans digging what we're doing, you know. We worked hard with this album for quite some time, so it was awesome to finally get something new out there on the market. I mean, "Recremation" was the first full length for NOMINON in nearly six years. It was also great to convince for all those who thought NOMINON would die after the departure of bassist Lenny and vocalist/singer Jonas that they were wrong. And yes, we play old school death metal with a touch of the old heroes, not only Swedish heroes though, I would say, but that's my opinion.

The record is far more better than "The True Face Of Death". What is the biggest difference between these recordings?
Perra: That the recording was done in a proper studio, by an engineer who knew what he was doing. Some other things that is important to mention is that the tracks are better, I think, and more varied. Which gives the album a wider range, and maybe a little bit easier to grab and listen to, and to like. Plus that I personally had much more time to prepare for the recording, even though I was stressed in the studio as I had to leave in the middle of the ten day recording to work on the Impaled Nazarene tour. But next time I will hopefully stay the whole studio recording and mixing, because that is what I actually prefer doing. Don't get me wrong, I really think that the rest of the guys and Tore at Necromorbus Studio did a fucking amazing job with the rest of the recording and mixing. I am just saying that I would have liked to be around during the whole production myself as well.

I fuckin' love this old school layout from your CD. Did you see the coloured artworks from Chris Moyen on his website? I think they suck. I love the black/white drawings. More atmosphere and so on! Perra: Well, the thing he is putting on his website is of course his thing. We all like them black and white, more or less. We are a Death metal band, and we like to keep it old and primitive, in a certain way. On our LP releases the NOMINON logo are red, the rest is either grey or white, on black. That simply does that it all looks a bit more old and grotesque. The CD design was made by Timo, an old friend of mine since the mid 90-ies. He did a tremendous job, as usual. Timo is definitely one of the biggest living artists I know. The special

slipcase design was fucking outstanding. Unfortunately he is in Italy now studying, so the layout for the cassette that will be released during December by Trauma Records will be done by another very good friend; E of Watain.

You recorded at Necromorbus studio and not at one of the big studios. Why did you choose this one and do you know, who also recorded there? I think that the sound is really cool and not that clear and mechanical like most of the modern sounding shit.
Perra: We choose to record the album there because we knew since ages that Tore Stjerna that owns the studio is a very huge NOMINON fan and that he knows exactly what we as a band were looking for when it comes to recording grotesque death metal. Other bands that have recorded at Necromorbus are WATAIN, FUNERAL MIST and TRIUMPHATOR, killer bands like that you know.

There were some line-up changes in the past, such as Joel (IMMERSED IN BLOOD) joined. What's up with the former members. Didn't they dig up with the NOMINON sound anymore?
Perra: Well, to be honest with ya. I don't know that much what they are doing nowadays. Lenny is always cool when I meet him, he works at a laundry and play in some bands, like Pagan Rites and some other acts. Jonas is still doing Rise And shine as well as Sargatanas Reign. As they are still playing Metal I have to say that they are still true to what they both believe in. Last I hang out with Jonas he said that he don't like Death Metal that much at all anymore. Nicke Holstenson who used to sing in NOMINON did an album with Thy Primordial. I don't know what they think about the NOMINON sound of today and I don't care. Yepp, there has always been a lot of line-up changes in NOMINON, but some people don't like the way the band progress, so they quit and then some of them talk shit about someone that they don't/didn't like in the band or what-so-ever, childish things like that. Now we have stayed as a unit for at least a whole year, so who knows for how long this line-up will stay together?!!

I like it, that you also released a LP from "Recremation"! Did you do it, cause Blood Harvest asked you or are you still a fan of the good old vinyl?
Perra: Blood Harvest Records offered us and Konqueror Rds to release the CD also on LP. So it was all very simple, they just did it and we handed over a cover of WHIPLASH's "Spit On Your Grave" as well, as bonus track. We love vinyl, of course. So we are proud that "Recremation" is available both on CD and LP, and soon also on cassette (with two bonus tracks!)

You also recorded a WHIPLASH covertune for the LP. Why did you choose WHIPLASH and which is your favourite record from them?
Perra: WHIPLASH is definitely among our fave thrash bands. Juha told us during the summer 2004 when we recorded another cover with VOIVOD, for a tribute album that later was deleted, that he wanted us also to record a track by WHIPLASH. So we just did it. The cover was recorded half a year before the "Recremation" recording, in another studio, so we didn't record the cover especially for the LP version. It was just something that we threw in as we wanted to give the vinyl freaks something extra.

How did you get in contact with Konqueror Records from Singapur? Isn't it strange to work with a label, which is so far away from you? Did you ever met the people behind Konqueror?
Perra: Well, they simply offered us a deal. We didn't really care which country Konqueror Rds and the people behind it are from. They have supported NOMINON 100% since day one. They are very huge fans of especially old Swedish Death Metal, so I guess one can say that we are talking the same language. Ha ha!! Konqueror have also paid tour support for us for two European tours in not even one and a half year, so we are extremely satisfied with what they have done for us so far. We don't have any big expectations as they are an underground label, and we are a underground band. We have never met each other, but that doesn't mean that we treat each other with less respect. We are about to start talking about further collaboration, so hopefully we will do our next album for them as well.

You played this year on the Fuck The Commerce. I think it was a cool possibility to play there, but most of the people and bands are in brutal DM. How were the reactions and the party on the FTC? Perra: The party was good! Killer people all over and we all had a blast during the festival. Too bad that I had to go early Saturday morning to work on the TESTAMENT tour, which means that I could not hang out also with my friends DISSECTION and IMPALED NAZARENE. Next time, freaks!! It's a bit funny that all these guys is actually talking about that FTC is mostly brutal DM. What the fuck, does that mean that NOMINON isn't a brutal DM band?? Anyway, we have heard from a lot of people that saw us

playing there that they believe that NOMINON was one of the best bands on the whole festival. That's awesome, you know. That was the first festival abroad for us and we hadn't rehearsed for a month before the festival due to my commitment as drummer to IN AETERNUM (who toured Europe just before the FTC festival), but when we walked out there on stage we had so much fun and it was all KILLER!!! We have some songs on video, and we will maybe put some shit on the website or on any possible DVD release in the future.

I couldn't see you on the tour with VITAL REMAINS. How was the tour and how were the people in VITAL REMAINS?
Perra: The tour was fucking great. We all got along really good and we respect and like each others music, and also as individuals. For NOMINON it was a huge success and we really noticed that we have a certain amount of fans out there in Europe. The tour was going through the following countries; Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland. We played material from all our CD-releases, yet mostly from the "Recremation" album.

Ok, let's start to talking about the beginnings of NOMINON. It all started in 1993 with a completely different line-up and also the music where more in the black metal direction...
Juha: Well, the very first demo ("Daemon 1") was very much Death Metal but the music in the recordings that followed got more Black. The other founding memeber, Peter, was a crazy Black Metal dude back then. When we parted ways I was finally able to make Nominon a total Death Metal band.

The first three demos also were rereleased as split CD with FAFNER. I never heard them, till now. Whose idea was it, to do something like that?
Juha: It was the idea of a guy called Norghash who's running this label Northern Silence Production. He's a huge fan of old school black metal and he wanted NOMINON's early material to be released on CD.

Soon after these demos there were also two demos in 1996 and 1997. Why didn't you choose this demos for the split-CD? I only know the "Promo'97" which were more or less in the direction as nowadays.
Juha: As I said, he only wanted the earlier stuff on the CD, mainly because in the black metal scene they're considered as cult recordings.

In 1999 your debut was released through X-Treem Records, which was a really crushing old school record. How were the reactions back than on the CD. Did you get a good promotion from Joel?
Juha: The reactions were mainly positive, much like it was with Recremation; a lot of people thought it was cool that Nominon played the Swedish type of old school death metal. Well, X-treme was a small label with very small or no possibilites at all to promote their releases. They made some flyers and sent some promo copies to zines.

After the record you did a long break till 2003. What happened? Juha: After "Diabolical..." we didn't have a plan, we just waited for a better deal with a different label. I don't know what we were thinking. Making new songs took a very long time, I think we lacked a bit of inspiration. Then Emil quit and we started over with Perra. Now we are more focused and we really enjoy working at this underground level. 2003 followed the demo/tape "Blaspheming The Dead", which were later on rereleased as 7". Was it like a new beginning for NOMINON? Juha: Yes, I guess you could say it was a new beginning.

With a new drummer whose style is very different from Emil's straightforward type of drumming, we began to shape our identity once again.

Ok, let's have a look into the future. Are there some news? I have heard about a 10“ and some split 7"es?! Who will release that stuff?
Perra: We are always in touch with people from all around, and from time to time they offer us split 7" releases or other cool stuff. Now we are working on the cassette release of "Recremation", the design and the master-CD is on its way to the label in Colombia; TRAUMA Records. The same label will also release a CD with some hard-to-get tracks and previously unreleased on CD, entitled "Remnants Of A Diabolical History". Then we are negotiating with Poland's AGONIA Rds for the LP release of the same release. We also have some planned split 7" EP's, but for now we can't hand out any info on these releases. So be sure to check our website every now and then for the latest news: www.nominon.com.

Ok, I think that's it till now. Thanks for your time and hope to see you soon! Cheerz!!!
Perra: Thanks a lot Leif for the interview. It's always awesome to talk with people that are a s dedicated to the underground as you. Good luck with Carnage Magazine! I'm sure we will meet again during 2006/2007. Keep it fucking brutal and all hail the Metal of Death! /Perra and NOMINON.

Interview: Leif (January 2006)