This powerful band comes from Sweden , they make an extremely energetic thrash metal (with some riffs and vocals really deathmetallish) and they have a great sense of humor not only in their lyrics but also in the way they explain some of them. Guitarist and vocalist Tomas Andersson spoke with us in a really friendly way.

Can you tell me a little bit about the history of the band?

Ponta and I formed Denata in1998 as a project. We had been in some local bands before but that was along time since last and we were both hungry to play some real metal. We made a couple of songs and recorded them and self-financed a vinyl EP. The vinyl EP got pretty good response and we really liked our style that we had created so we decided to find a bas player and transform into a band. The bass player that joined us were an old friend to Ponta named Roger. After Roger had joined us we made a lot of new stuff and after a while we record the album Departed To Hell. Our plan was to send this album around to labels and try to get a deal but it was sent without success so we self-financed this CD as we did with the EP. Departed To Hell has been getting great response around the world from fanzines and radio stations. Right now we are in the studio and recording our upcoming full-length album DEATHTRAIN how and when it will be released isn't set yet, that's the story this far........

We haven't played a single gig yet and I don't know if we ever are going to do get on stage with Denata. First of all we would need a session guitar player to sound as we do on the records and it's also hard to find someone we would like to play with. The second problem is that we don't think it would be fun to perform live with Ponta singing behind the drums and then we would need one more session musician so I guess we will be a studio band but maybe one day we will enter the stage, how knows?

Do you consider Denata a thrash metal band or more like a death metal one?

We consider Denata as a thrash metal band, maybe we got some death metal sounding riffs but its meant to be pure thrash metal from the beginning till the very last end.

Do you plan to add another guitarist or another musician or the trio format is perfect for you?

Its perfect with a trio for us and we won´t add any other musicians. We almost agree and think the same about everything with Denata and another musician would probably just cause more damage than pleasure. If we should perform live one day we would need at least a session guitar player but that's a later problem.

Who recorded the bass parts in your first EP? Why didn´t you hire a bassist to do it?

Hehe, nice question, this is really sick. I recorded the bass guitar on the EP but we thought it sounded like shit and destroyed the guitar sound so we skipped the bass and just used the guitar. The EP production was so bad so by my opinion you don't even recognize there isn't a bass guitar.

Are there any personal aspects or feelings that influence the way in which you do your music?
A hard question to answer, I haven't thought about it but I guess the music reflects the mood we are into and what kind of music we have listen to for almost the whole life. The lyrics are just for pleasure and represents our weird humoristic and psychotic minds.

Is Ghouls Records your own record label? Have you reached another labels or do you prefer to work independently?
Yeah Ponta and I finance Ghoul Records and we have just released 3 records this far. We really like to work independent but we have tried to reach other labels because of the high cost of promotion. On the Departed to hell recording we send hundreds of promos but we didn't get any contract on those so we decided to release it by our self. It will be the same thing with the new album, promos will be sent and if we don't get a deal on that it will be released on Ghoul Records again, nothing can stop us you know hehe.

Are you still using B.C.Rich Guitars? Which is your equipment?
No I'm using a Jackson King-V guitar these days and that is the guitar I wanted from the first beginning. I couldn't afford it before so I got my self a B.C. Rich. The B.C. Rich guitars are great but I prefer to play Jackson. I got a EMG-81 mic in it and play on a Marshall stack. Rogga plays on a Yamaha bass and a Marshall stack as well. Ponta use 2 mixed drums sets, one Slingerland and one Dixon and it sounds really mean.

What are your lyrics about? Can you explaine them? For example there are some titles like "Mistress of Buffalo Shit" that are quite strange.
On the EP and Departed To Hell records the lyrics is totally psychotic, it's about completely insane things. "Mistress of buffalo shit" is about a girl named Helen that lives in the same city as us, she is so fat and ugly and fucks with everyone that got a penis. We wrote a song about her when she is driving around in a car and causes a terrible smell of buffalo shit I know you would throw up if you saw her hehe ... Another song I really like the topic of is Saccharified and grey, its about a guy named Jukko that has a grandma with flaccid pussy, that's all! The word saccharified did some reviewers at zines thought we had spelled wrong but that's bullshit, the word is hard to explain if you don't know what it means but it got with sugar to do!

Are you influenced by classic thrash bands or there are also some new bands that have influenced your sound?
For all three of us our main influence are old school thrash metal, band such as Kreator, Sodom, and Venom ....... Some new bands like The Crown, and Swordmaster also influence us, I guess it's mostly me that listen to newer bands and maybe Rogga do that as well. Ponta is total possessed by old music and I don't know when he bought a "new" record last time.

Any final words ?
Thanks as hell for the interview and keep up your great work with Music extreme. To all metal maniacs out there make sure to check out our upcoming release DEATHTRAIN, do you dare to take a ride, huh?

Interviewed by Federico Marongiu

Departed To Hell - CD (2000)

Deathtrain - CD (2001)

Tomas - guitars, vocals

Ponta - drums, vocals

Roger - bass