### Vicious Art - Robert Lundin

#### 30/03/06 || Lord K Philipson

In a new oustanding and innovative move to promote the excellent bands we host at the forums, we now bring you a series of interviews, made with the bands in question. First out is Vicious Art. Swedish deathrashers de luxe, living and breathing in Stockholm. Robert Lundin is the target. He used to be in Dark Funeral. And some other shit. He also play the drums. And he’s quite fucken good as well, actually. Just check out their stuff, dammit!

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

Robert Lundin: Vicious Art is a high-quality band, both on recordings and performing live. It’s about time we get more recognition because I sincerely believe that we deserve it. To put it short: If you like strong metal, chances are you will like Vicious Art! In fact the odds are ridiculously low. Buy our records and come check us out live and we’ll friggin’ refund you if you are not satisfied. Now, how’s that for a deal, huh!? (is this legally binding by the way?, ha ha)

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

We play brutal and intense death metal deluxe, with some thrash and black thrown in as well. Pure perverted aggressions. Like a brick thrown in your face, but with finesse.

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.

People should listen to “Weed the wild” for a first impression. Fortunately, there are in fact no bad songs in the Vicious Art- catalogue as of yet (and hopefully never will be, because when in doubt we try to have the good taste to simply put the song to eternal sleep), but in case of emergency people could perhaps skip “War”. Then again, I’m sure one or two of our songs actually do suck from an objective perspective, so I leave it to who ever reads this to please insert your own choice of crap here: _____

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

Ok. Before I start I would like to throw in a teaser; I will make this as interesting as possible for the readers by, for the first time ever, revealing some basic ideas behind the lyrics. Vaguely of course, but still… enjoy the premiere! But bare in mind, what is written below might not be the reigning truth or reality. If you ask my dear comrade Jocke (vocals), he might (and most likely will) give you alternative answers, I’m sure.However puzzling that may be, it’s the devil’s honest truth.

“FIRE FALLS AND THE WAITING WATERS” ( Album-title for those of you who don’t know us… yet. )

1. Debria seems to be bleeding

Ten years from now I’m sure this will be one of my absolute favourite songs, if not THE favourite, of all V.A. songs. Intense blast-beating with quite cool drum-fills in the middle-part and with lyrics about forbidden pleasures. Aaaahhh.

2. Komodo lights

I used to like this song better when it was fresher, but I guess I just grew tired of it as of now. The pick of some metal-magazines who included it on their free CD’s, and overall greeted it with great reviews. If you digest the lyrical content carefully you might notice that we’re dealing with reflections over the ongoing killings in our world. Enough said already!

3. Fire falls

The music is written by our lead-vocalist and co-lyricist (together with yours truly) Jocke. The last song to make it to the album. Not a hit I guess, but still enjoyable enough. When it was recorded and I listened to it in the studio I thought it was top three on the album. I’m not so sure anymore, but I like playing the song live. Good shit! It deals with the real life vampires. There are dead people walking the earth, as you and I see it every day. Weird isn’t it? They appear beside you on the street, on the bus, on the pub. They function just like you within their human appearance. Still they are not alive. You can see it in their eyes. Sad really.

4. A whistler and his gun

Originally named “A whistler and his son”, which in retrospect had probably been cooler to keep as a title. Anyway, THIS IS A HIT!! Lots of people have responded with much liking to this song, and it was one of the very first tunes we ever wrote. I like it very much myself, and guess it will remain in our top five V.A-list for a long time, and I think I speak for everyone in the band now. To everyone’s surprise, this story is about a whistler and his gun. It deals with unhappiness and the idea of suicide. And for the record, the idea behind the lyrics is not in any way related to anyone in the band, so chill…

5. Ceremony, the waiting waters

For some reason still unknown to the band, this is THE HIT of the album. Close Up Magazine included this song on their free CD-sampler and Mattias, aka “Indy”, who did the interview with me and Jocke for Close Up Magazine praised this song over and over. I understand it has got something to do with the chorus and the repetitive pattern in the construction of the work, but still… Well, for this reason it’s a fun song to play live anyway. I don’t know about the actual song though. I mean it’s good and all, for sure, but comparatively? Maybe I should try to explain what I feel with a quote from Woody Allen (when asked what he thinks about Ingmar Bergman): “Well, I must say that there are movies of his that aren’t so good really, by Ingmar’s standards. But still they are far better than anything anyone else has ever done”.

A message to the retarded readers: Please note that the above contains portions of irony and taking the piss out of ourselves. Therefore, to prevent any hatemail coming our direction I suggest you cool down and go back to sleep, you illiterate morons. About the lyrics, hmmmm, next one please.

6. Mother dying

Always sends shivers up my spine whenever I hear it (or play it). I simply love this song. It’s a good song by all standards, but I especially like the way we worked with the vocal arrangements. The lyrics are more or less entirely written by Jocke, and therefor I won’t comment on this beautiful piece of poetry (although I want to add that knowing what it’s about increases the chills on your back).

7. The poet must die

This is another band-favourite, and one of the more thrash-like songs on the album. Also quite popular among our followers. It was one of the first songs written for the album. There are lyrical parts sung in a very intense way that I’m very satisfied with. I guess you could say it deals with false prophets, people not living up to other people’s expectations, addictions and above all: love in its purest form. Are we clear about this now? ( Note by The Lord: Clear as mud )

8. Cut this heathen free

I love the chorus. Jörgen’s vocal performance is awesome. This song has a nice death metal groove to it. If I’m correct this was a late addition to the debut. What can I say about the lyrics? Love love love. Remember, although we play death metal and try to act too cool for school, deep inside we’re nothing short of comfort- seeking bricks in life. Our mission, however, is to finally reveal the mystics contained within the Venus-Mars riddles. In other words; are women really as cunning and intricate as we men like to think (apart from being beautiful and caring of course), or could it be they too just crave the pleasures of the flesh? Look for the answer in album to come no. 5 (we should have solved the puzzle by then).

9. War

The reason I earlier picked this song as the one to skip if choosing between that or death, is that it’s not the most representative song for Vicious Art. Nevertheless, its great value is just that. Of all the ten songs on “FFATWW” this one probably differs the most from the rest. Hence it has an important purpose. I like playing the song drum wise. The storyline was written down by a lake in the forest where me and Jocke hung out naked in the moonshine with beer and…… no women. Just the two of us. Perhaps it sounds too good to be true, but it is in fact almost true, in that at least one of us appeared naked during a night swim. It’s of course about the war within relationships and everything that comes with it. By now you might ask yourself: Do these guys have relationship issues? Or issues with women in general? Well, as a matter of fact the making of this song pretty much coincided with something along those lines.

10. Why would the captured set free the flies

This is a quite straight forward song that finishes the album with style. A wild mix between blast beats and groove. I like it, although it’s kind of boring to play. The lyrics? Nah… Let’s move on to the new shit.

“WEED THE WILD” ( New 3 song EP. Released soon, now available as download or pre-order on our site. )

1. Weed the wild

A nice start I must say. I think this song is fantastic. A future live favourite I’m sure. It doesn’t get much more intense than this. I’m so glad we decided to record it and release this EP. Blastbeats from hell, guitar-attacks from hell and vocals from hell. Sounds hellish, doesn’t it? About the dilemma of unwanted pregnancies and the choices that comes with it, but in this case with a certain extra twist to it. What about those family matters, really…? Now we are there again. We simply can’t break loose from our Oedipus complexes, sexual abnormalities, therapeutic relations and what have you. It makes me sad. ( Note by The Lord: I don’t know about you guys, but all that sex-talk gave me a boner )

2. Tanja joins the beating

Yes, she literally does just that. Pay your entrance and you’re in for a treat. And the beating goes on… and on… Could be a future classic among the suffering few that say they care about us. Until recently, according to a very scientific poll on Global Domination, the voters’ favourite track. I tend to agree from time to time. We actually played this song once live with improvised lyrics a long time ago, and it has gotten better since.

3. Exit wounds

Strange guitar-riffs. Sort of odd-time vocals. A chorus inspired by Voivod and Godflesh. Could you ask for more (not that the inspiration necessarily shows, but that’s the way it’s supposed to be)? Drama, drama, oh the sweet drama. I love the smell of drama in the morning. The wounds are now healed anyway. Now it’s up to you to make sure you get a hold of our recordings and let us know what you think about our works. Thank you very much! Muchos gracias! Grazie! Danke schön! Tack så mycket! We’re all happy here!

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.

How about Jörgens involvement in The Project Hate, Krux and Deathbreath? I honestly don’t care much myself, other than I wish Jörgen all the best and that he enjoys what he’s doing. And there is this big fellow in TPH that I run into from time to time that I really like. And sometimes his music. I know that other people care though, so check them out if you haven’t already.

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

Not really. Not in terms of the actual music anyway. The lyrics are original and more in-depth that most of the death metal bands out there, and we are definitely a good live act. That’s no bullshit. I like to think that there are at least parts of our music that defines Vicious Art, but we are certainly not a revolution. That has never been our intention either. We just want to write hard music, whether it is death, thrash or black metal, and do it as good as we possibly can. And I think we come out ahead and on top of our game. I myself like the guitar-riffs a lot, and I salute my bandmates for being great songwriters! A special thought goes out to Matti (guitar) who have put up with me for all those years, in everything that we have done together, both in and out of the music-world. Amazing!

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

Iron Maiden, Metallica, Bathory, Britney Spe… oops… Okay, let’s see now… Venom and Mercyful Fate. Yep. That looks metal enough in writing.

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

Buffalo. But let’s just say we were allowed to be a Swedish team instead, just for arguments sake.Then we would be called Djurgårdens Leksands Gute IF.

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

Without even thinking about it I say Tobbe. Just because he is the youngest, inverted Silly-boy Sillman. Often very funny and semi-retarded when drunk, full of surprises on the travelling roads to gigs and overall just a good bloke. And also my imaginary brother. And for being that he qualifies. I’m proud of him and his songwriting.

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.

Intelligent.

Why are you at our forums in the first place?

I like to believe that we were asked to join as “affiliates”, and since Lord K is cool, and we didn’t have any better options we agreed with big smiles on or faces. I also have a very soft spot for flattering. And people on this forum flatter us a lot. Just keep them nice words coming and we’ll stay with you.

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

1500 copies or so.

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

Ha, that would almost be impossible since we often half-jokingly/ half-seriously talk about that no one outside the Global Domination forums have even heard about us. So that would have to be an honest no. On the other hand we might think that we are better than we actually are. Just kidding of course. No way Jose’. We actually are as good as we sound and look, believe it or not. Almost too good to be true. Said the cocky little drummer, always in search for the timekeeping, ha ha.

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

For Vicious Art, a couple of hundred Swedish Kronor = practically nothing. For Dark Funeral, a couple of thousand Swedish Kronor = enough to make someone extra happy for a couple of nights out.

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.

www.viciousart.se. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if people still don’t give a fuck after having read this interview. Who knows what I’ve been babbling about? But then again, my brilliant intellect should at least have caught the attention of a few, and you never know when THE right person reads it, do you? So long baby!