ArtistInfo

Braindead

Band, SE

Old school death metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden. Braindead was active between 1988-1990. The band was a part of the scene which was to become known to the world as "The Gothenburg Sound". This is the story of Braindead as told by the bass player Mattias Lindeblad ... Braindead actually started out as somewhat of a joke in late 1988, as a reaction towards the bands that our new friend Tomas Lindberg (ex. Grotesque, ex. At the Gates) presented to us. We were more into stuff like AC/DC, Metallica and Iron Maiden at the time. One of our friends, Anders Iwers (ex. Desecrator/Ceremonial Oath, Tiamat) had just started at a new high school and immediately found a good friend in Tomas. To be honest, we were quite shocked when we sat in Tomas room in his parents’ house and he introduced us to bands like Napalm Death, Carcass and Sodom. I thought that the music was awkward, intense and exiting at the same time. I think that the other guys felt the same way. I really liked the taste of brutal metal and I wanted to learn more, to enter that new exiting world of musical death and destruction. We didn’t quite know what to do with our feelings regarding this new experience, so inspired Tomas and his Grotesque, we decided to start a band. The first name that came up was “Braindead”. We kind of thought that, “Hey, if they can play fast and furious, we can play fast and furious! It can’t be that hard, can it?” In our neighborhood an own rehearsal studio was as rare as seeing a vampire in the street. A couple of us had a connection to a local church as we had gotten our confirmation there a couple of years earlier. So during the first year Braindead rehearsed in a room next to the church hall in an actual church. We riffed and banged our heads in the evenings when there was no one there. I remember that Björn, the guitarist, used go into the church hall and turn the big crucifix upside down before we got started. It always made me a bit nervous, because if someone had caught us playing the songs “Burning flesh” or “Blood feast” with an inverted cross in the church hall next door, our rehearsal days would be over. Finally one of the priests came in to work late one evening. He didn’t see the cross, but he heard the music and kindly asked us to leave since our material wasn’t appropriate in a Christian environment. We were no Satanists or devil worshipers, just kids discovering music. But I guess he was right. We didn't belong there. We got some hours a week to rehearse at a community youth club called “Fågeln”not too far from home. The staff there was really cool and they had a 4-track studio. In the autumn of 1989 we recorded our first demo. “Guts” (as in intestines, not the word for being brave) consisted of three songs: “Burning flesh”, “Corpse” and “Hendersons”. The latter was a humorous one. The lyrics were about a teenager who comes home from school and discovers that his whole family has turned into zombies. The song itself was pure Metallica-rip-off-crap, but the other two numbers had a sincere rawness that we really enjoyed. Now Braindead was for real. Through Tomas Lindberg we got one of our first gigs at the school were Grotesques bass player David Hultén went. The 13th of December is a national celebration day in Sweden when we salute the Italian saint “Lucia”. (Don’t ask me why.) The day before this event it’s custom for young people in Sweden to party, which means drink their heads to pieces. It was at one of these parties, in a gymnastic hall at this really snobbish upper class school, we were to please the crowd by opening for Grotesque. David had told the school board that they sounded like Def Leppard and there fore no one objected when he asked if Braindead could be the opening act. The crowd, who consisted of 800 thirteen to sixteen year old teens, seemed a bit surprised when we started off with the fast, heavy and growling song “Blood feast”. I actually don’t think that they thought of it as music, but the front row seemed to think that it was a fun noise to jump to. They probably would have loved a band who did Madonna or Tears for Fears covers. The reception was pretty cool I think, although it looked like they didn’t get it at all. Of course lots of kids had left the hall at the end of our set to buy sodas or to drink liquor in the bushes outside the school, but still ... When we were done a local girl band went on stage and did some numbers like “Hotel California” which brought the people back in … for perhaps one of the most horrifying moments of their lives. The lights went out. A friend to the band carried in big inverted crosses and put them at both ends of the stage in front of the speakers. A ghoulish intro started. The members of Grotesque went on stage with corpse paint in their faces and just stood there absolutely still with their backs to the audience. When the intro was over they turned around and gave everything. I think that the classic track “Blood runs from the altar” was their first number. The energy that the band projected was amazing, but it was also too much for quite a few people on the floor in front of the stage. You could see that some of the girls were about to burst into tears, and some actually did. During the second song the over all crowd was in a state of shock. I especially remember one girl who was almost carried out by her friend, and between the sobbing and the crying I heard her say: “They are insane!!! They are devil worshipers!!!” That special quote has followed me through out the years and I have laughed from the memory of that particular incident many times. When the song was over one of the parents, who was there to supervise that things didn't get out of hand, simply cut the power. For a few seconds all you could here from the band was Tomas Erikssons drumming. Another terrified parent hit the lights and the show was over. The Grotesque guys were really pissed. So were we, but we could also see the bizarre humor in the whole situation. Tomas eventually got a ride, in full make up, to his house by one of the parents. I stayed for a while and started to hit on the lead singer of the girl band. I wasn't successful. Today I am really glad I was there to watch Grotesque, the pioneers of Swedish death metal, making the rich and the spoiled cry. Soon after the infamous gig we got rid of the guitarist Björn due to lack of timing. He later became a poet and started playing African bongos. We found a new guitarist in Jens Hörnsten who had the right feeling and attitude towards the music. In june 1990 we went into that same primitive studio at the community youth club. We recorded and mixed our second demo “Summon for the praise” in five hours, and were pleased with the result. Braindead had achieved to get down four old school death metal songs with a punkish twist on tape. The strange thing is that we never sent the cassette to any record labels, we were happy to just trade it with different death metal buffs all over the world and to be a part of the scene. In the beginning of 1991 the vocalist Peter and I got tired of playing death metal, even though we still loved the music. Our drummer Markus Nordberg went on to play with Desecrator, Ceremonial Oath and later Cemetery, while Peter and I wanted to do something different, to break some barriers within our little community of friends. So we started an AC/DC influenced rock band called Broken Boned. We went on playing for another ten years with our slightly different way to approach rock'n'roll under the name Perverted Zoo, but the timing was all wrong. We probably would have had a better chance with our music today. In the end we got sick of the “Thanks, but no thanks”-letters from the record companys and sent Perverted Zoo into the eternal sleep. But we recorded a lot of good songs in professional recording studios, and on some of the songs you can hear Anders Jivarp (Dark Tranquillity) on drums, Anders Björler (ex. At the Gates, The Haunted) on guitar and Martin Brändström (Dark Tranquillity) on electronics. From all of the bands that we hung out and partied with Braindead was the only one that didn't make it. I say this with no bitterness what so ever. I actually think that it's quite funny. Today I work as a music journalist and I am happy to have been an active part of the first wave of the Swedish death metal movement. I am very proud of my old buddies from Billdal (a suburb outside Gothenburg), which is the place that most of the bands in some way originated from. The ones you might have heard of is and was: At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Tiamat, The Haunted, HammerFall, Liars in Wait, Cemetery, The Great Deceiver, Ceremonial Oath. Mattias Lindeblad BRAINDEAD (Mark I - 1989) Peter Ekberg – Guitar & Vocals Björn Mankner – Guitar Mattias Lindeblad – Bass Markus Nordberg – Drums BRAINDEAD (Mark II – 1989-1990) Peter Ekberg – Guitar & Vocals Jens Hörnsten – Guitar Mattias Lindeblad – Bass Markus Nordberg – Drums

Members

	Markus Nordberg dr, bvoc SE
	Björn Mankner
	Peter Ekberg
	Mattias Lindeblad

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