### Satariel - Robert Sundelin

#### 25/04/06 || Lord K Philipson

Yes, we are still doing our best to support the bands we host here at GD, and the one next in line is Satariel. One of Sweden’s finest, in their genre, whatever that genre is. Drummer Robert answers our questions and we thank him for putting some serious time into the answers. That’s how you do it.

Global Domination: Some people visiting this site might not have checked you out just yet. Give them a reason as for why they should.

Robert: It’s quality shit. It might not be anything new, but we pull it off pretty well. If you dig melodic metal, death or whatever, you might find us pretty good!

And what exactly are you fuckers playing when it comes to style?

We come from a black metal background, which still shows up from time to time, but nowadays we’re pretty soft and melodic. Metal with influences from everything between doom to pop. I’m gonna steal a quote from some interview I read that sums us up pretty well: We sound like everybody else, but no one sounds like us. ( Note by The Lord: I love it when people quote me, even though not all correct. )

List your fave-song with yer band so people know what to listen to for a first impression. And while yer at it, list the one you don’t want people to hear.

It’s kinda hard to recommend a song that would introduce Satariel as a band for a first-time listener since… well, we’re pretty diverse and the material takes off in all kinds of directions. But two tracks that seem to be the “hits” are “Coffin Gateways” from our second album, and “Claw the Clouds” from our third. Personally, my fave songs are “Holy Trinity” (from “Phobos..”) and “Vengeance is Hers” + “Scattering the Timeweb” (from “Hydra”). I like our darker and heavier shit.

Can you please make a rundown of yer album/albums? Personal thoughts about it/them. Go into as much detail as you want to.

“Lady Lust Lilith” – recorded in ‘97 in Sunlight Studios, Stockholm. On this album we were pretty much contemporary Swedish black/death. Lots of blastbeats and black metal-riffing, but already back then we had started to use some melodic vocals and some more original stuff. But we were kids back then, and it shows; it’s pretty untight, the arrangements are kinda crappy and so on. I kinda like the production though, the guitars are brutal. We only play a couple of the songs of this album live, “Devil’s Dozen” and “Sheep to be Slain”, but they are still pretty good tracks.

“Phobos and Deimos” – recorded in 2001 in Dug-Out Studios, Uppsala. On this album the black metal-influences were almost gone, but we brought in a good deal of thrash into the songs. We had started to make more true “songs” instead of just tying together a bunch of unrelated riffs, which was the case on the debut. We also took the tempo down a couple of notches, although there still are some pretty fast songs on there. Messiah Marcolin sang guest-vocals on a few tracks, which was a really cool experience for us and at the same time brought us a lot of attention. I like the album a lot, there are some great songs on there. And some fillers, like “Death Come Cover Me”, a song which not even any one in the band seem to remember.

“Hydra” – recorded in 2004 in Dug-Out again (not released until 2005 though, 2006 in the US). More melody on this one. Less speed and less thrash, more heaviness and atmosphere. I’m very pleased with “Hydra”. A bunch of catchy songs, a great production and solid performances from the guys. Nothing fancy though, when it comes to the playing, we kept it simple.

I should mention the MCD we’re working on right now too, it’s probably going to be called “Chifra” and it is pretty closely connected to “Hydra”. Four catchy songs and some of the best vocals I have heard Pär perform. Hopefully it should be out before the summer, but we’re kinda used to heavy delays, so we’ll see.

Are you guys having any side-projects/other bands going? Bands worth of mentioning that is. Plug away and give us the reasons as for why they should even care about them if they don’t really care about yer main-band in the first place.

I play death/grind in a band called Hellmasker. We’ve only released one demo back in ‘98, but we still play live every now and then. Fun shit. I also play the drums for Nintendo-metalband Game Over, on their second still-to-be-released demo. Pär and Sniper are involved in Torchbearer together with dudes from Unmoored and Scar Symmetry. Their second album “Warnaments” is released… right about now I think!? Melodic death metal, but in a whole different way than Satariel. Mangz and Mike also play around in projects from time to time, but I’m not sure if there are any named ones.

What makes you guys any different to the shitloads of crap-bands out there? Do you really have anything new to offer?

Anything new, probably not. We just do the thing we feel like, and some people seem to like it. Great!

List some bands that inspired you guys to start playing in the first place.

Darkthrone, Morbid Angel, Candlemass, My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost…

If yer band was a NHL-team, which one would it be?

Some middle-level team that doesn’t make much of a fuzz.

Who would be the most retarded member of the band? Give us a few examples as for why.

We’re all probably at about the same level of retardation, I guess. But Pär is always making us others pissed off, having to wait hours for him when we’re gonna rehearse or whatever, so he will receive the title. No offense of course, Pär. Pusspuss.

Describe the music of yer fucken band with ONE word. All this is to make people understand a little more what you are about, you know.

Diverse.

Why are you at our forums in the first place?

We were invited by Lord K after “Hydra” was released and he had made sure we weren’t just a one-hit-wonder.

Roughly, how much has/have your album/albums sold? Be honest.

I have no idea at all about “Hydra”, but I think the others sold around 5000-8000 copies? Something like that.

Do you guys believe you are bigger than you actually are?

No, I still get very surprised when someone actually confesses to have heard us.

Have you ever seen any royalties? What was the biggest cheque for?

I am not sure about the debut-album, we might have gotten some peanut-money for that one, I don’t remember. “Phobos and Deimos” cost so much to record that I think we still are fucking far from breaking even on that one. And nothing on “Hydra” yet either. It’s all charity work.

If people read this and still don’t give a fuck about yer band, is there anything you’d like to add that might peak their interest? Plug yer website(s) as well while yer at it.

We’ve burnt like… a thousand of churches!! And we’re really… women!! Or whatever gets you off.

Check out www.satariel.com or the forums here at GD to see what’s going on!