The reactions have been extremely good! Actually a little better than expected, so we are of course very pleased with that. Both fans and media are absolutely raving about the new album and the reactions from the crowd when we have played the new songs live, has been really great too.

To me the new album sounds much faster and aggressive than "Primal Massacre". Can you agree with that? If yes, was it a planned from the beginning?

The material itself is slightly more aggressive, more brutal and more intense than Primal Massacre, but also the production on the new album is quite a lot more brutal and powerful that adds to the impression that this is a way more aggressive album than the previous one. We definitely planned to get a more powerful and more modern production on this album and we also aimed at getting the material more varied than earlier, which I think we managed to do pretty good. The new album is fast for sure, but it also contains some of the heaviest and slow stuff we´ve ever written.

You are not the fastest band when it comes to new releases - between "Primal Massacre" and "Terrorize..." nearly 2,5 years passed. What did you do in the meantime? How long did you work on the songs?

You´re damn right there! Except that it actually was three years between the two albums! I think it was mostly because of lack of motivation and inspiration. After we had done the summer festivals in 2004, we just sat on our asses and waited for I don´t know why. We had a down-period that lasted for more than a year. No one in the band had any inspiration to do anything, whether it was writing new material or getting more shows or taking the band in any possible direction. But then things started to happen again - both good and bad things.
We got a festival and two small tours in the UK and Holland confirmed for later that year (2005). We did the festival in Italy (S-Hammer Fest) and short after that, our long-time guitarist Ulf Dalegren decided to leave Vomitory after nearly fifteen years in the band. This was of course very unfortunate and sad, but Ulf had his reasons and this was something that he had considered very carefully for a long time. His reasons were solely of private nature, so I won´t go into detail why he quit. But we parted our musical ways on good terms. Ulf is still one of my closer friends, so on that level, nothing has changed. We still hang out every once in a while. Well, after Ulf departure, we needed someone to quickly fill in for him on the upcoming small tours, so our friend, and my band-mate in God Among Insects, Lord K Philipsson helped us out on those shows before we completed the new permanent line-up with new guitarist Peter Östlund, who joined the folds in December of 2005.
It wasn´t until Peter had been in the band for a couple of months we began writing seriously for the new album. I had some fragments of songs and some riffs here and there that I´d written during the down-period, but now we entered "full-writing-mode", so to speak. Having a new guy in the band, and him being as talented as Peter is, definitely brought new inspiration to the rest of us. The material for Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize took about a little less than one year to complete. I usually write most of the music by myself and I don´t present a song to the others until it´s completely finished. Then we go through it and make any necessary changes together, or just leave it as it is. This time though, I got some help with the writing from Peter, which proved to be a great addition to the Vomitory sound. Peter has contributed with three songs on the new album, with some assistance from me - The Burning Black, Defiled And Inferior and Heresy - all killer songs. Erik writes most of the lyrics, as usual, but this time Peter and I contributed with some lyrical material as well. Peter has done the lyrics for Defiled And Inferior and I´ve done the lyrics for the title track, Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize, as well as some contribution to the lyrics for Cremation Ceremony.

What are the lyrics about? the album title is very strikingly and leads to the guess that the lyrics are not about flowers and bees... ;)

Yeah, that´s right. We wanted an album title that instantly told what this album is about - death fucking metal! The lyrics aren´t anything groundbreaking at all - they never were - but we think that brutal music requires brutal lyrics, and that´s the way we write them. Of course we - or more correct Erik, who is our main lyric writer - put a lot of work into the lyrics to make them as good as possible. We don?t have any special message or opinion that we want to spread with our lyrics. We go for violent entertainment instead.

How long do you need to write a song completely?

That differs from song to song, but generally speaking, it takes pretty long for us to finish one song. You should know that we are all working regular day jobs, Monday to Friday, so it´s not like we have the possibility to work on writing music whenever we want. That sucks, but that´s the way life is. You have to have an income after all... I am also very self-critical when it comes to composing, which I think is a good thing to keep the quality high, and that´s also a big reason for it taking so long to finish one song. If I´m in my best writing-mood and feel that I have a lot of inspiration, I can write a song in maybe a few hours in total. Maybe not on the same day though. But most of the times, it takes me about an average of one month to finish the music for one song. But then there are the lyrics to be written too. I?m not sure of how long Erik takes to finish the lyrics for one song, but I think he works like me: write a little at the time during a period of time and then put it together in the end. Sometimes I have fragments or/and riffs laying around for a long time before I fit them into a song or continue writing on them. Like the choruses for "Scavenging The Slaughtered" and "Whispers From The Dead" for example, are stuff that I´ve had since 1998 and 2000!

Where did you record the album? How long did the recording session take?

The new album was recorded at Leon Music Studios in Karlstad/Sweden, i.e. our home area, together with the studio owner/founder/producer/engineer Rikard Löfgren. It was the first time we worked with Löfgren in Leon Music Studio and it was a very positive experience. First of all, it was very convenient to work in our home area and to be able to go home every day after working in the studio and sleep in our own beds. This contributed to the more relaxed and more focused atmosphere that was during the whole recording session. On previous albums, we?ve been been away for a couple of weeks to record the ablums, because of the distance to the studios. That works fine too, but compared to how we worked this time, it tend to be slightly less focused and 100% more of being drunk in the evenings to kill the boredom of being trapped in a studio. Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize took ten days to record, which must be some kind of record for us. Everything went so smooth, we didn´t stress at all, took our time to get things right - yet it took us only ten days to record everything! We spent quite a lot of time on the mixing and the mastering, about two weeks or so, before we felt completely satisfied.

Do you enjoy studio work?

Personally, I love working in the studio. It´s great to hear how the songs build up, instrument by instrument, track by track, into - or in the best cases, beyond what one imagined it to be in the end when one wrote the songs. I think all guys in the band like working in the studio, more or less. But working in the studio under poor conditions can be a real pain in the ass. You need to have the right engineer or/and producer and not an asshole that tries to tell you what´s right or wrong, well enough studio time to be able to finish everything in a proper way, which also means that you need a budget that´s reasonable for the purpose. Working under stress because of lack of time is definitely a bitch, and you never get a good result out of working that way.

You didn´t play many gigs last year. What was the reason for that?

The only reason for that was that we wanted to focus on finishing the material for Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize. We didn?t think it would make much sense for us to do a lot of shows when the last time we had a new album out was in spring 2004. We knew we had to focus on the new album instead of doing one-off shows here and there. That would only delay the new album even more. To write and record a new album was our one and only goal for 2006.

So far you´ve been confirmed for a couple of festivals this summer. Which one is the one you´re looking forward to play the most?

We are looking forward to play all of them of course, but for different reasons. I don´t think I´m looking forward to play anyone more than the other. Maryland Death Fest will be our first show in the U.S.A. ever, which of course is something big for us. Sweden Rock Festival is special since it?s the biggest Rock/Metal festival in Scandinavia and it?s a great festival that we usually visit when we?re not playing. And With Full Force will be really cool to do as well, since we have never played there before. We have a good experience from big German festivals and there are also quite a lot of cool bands that we?re going to check out when we?re there. So I don´t think I can say that I?m looking forward to anyone more than the other. I´m looking forward to them all!

Do you plan to go on tour later this year?

Yes, we are. Nothing is confirmed yet, but we are working on getting something together before the end of this year.

What do you think, how long will Vomitory be active?

That?s hard to say, but I believe that we will release at least a couple of more albums before we call it a day. I definitely think that we?ll be around when we celebrate our 20th anniversary as a band in 2009. I feel that we still have a lot more to give and the atmosphere and the moral in the band are better now than they have been in a very long time. A lot of that has to do with getting a new member, guitarist Peter Östlund, in the band in December 2005. That was a major change within Vomitory, which I believe, now in retrospect, was absolutely necessary for the survival of this band. But I want to point out, that it has nothing to do with any disagreements or negative things about our previous guitarist Ulf Dalegren, at all. As I said earlier, we parted our musical ways as the best of friends. But Peter came into the band with lots of new and positive energy that passed on to the other three of us, so I think you have to stand Vomitory for another few more years.

Are you still active in God Among Insects? How much priority do you give it?

Yes, I am still a member of God Among Insects, but it?s not the most active band on earth, which is just the way we intended when we started this band. When the members are busy with their main bands, as we are now, there is no time or interest in doing anything with God Among Insects. We do it only when we feel like it and when we have the time. So at the moment I don?t give it any priority at all. We did a bunch of shows in Sweden a couple of months ago, which was great fun, but now I am busy with Vomitory, Lord K is busy with the new Project Hate album and he´s currently on tour with Grave, Tomas is busy with the new Sanctification album and Caligula is busy with touring with Dark Funeral. We will see what happens in the future with the Insects. Eventually we´ll make another album when or if we feel like it.

And some final words?

Thanks a lot for the interview, Lars. Keep your information about Vomitory up to date by checking www.vomitory.net every once in a while. As soon as we have new festival- and show dates confirmed, we´ll post it there, and I promise there will be more than we have confirmed at the moment. Cheerz!