It's so common these days to come across many amazing bands that were overlooked in their early days, but thanks to those who were loyal and devoted to them, they were rediscovered and have become more popular in the modern world. Is it really the case of "right place, right time"? I will leave it up to you to decide. Such is the case with the veterans of Swedish heavy metal, the band Mindless Sinner from Linköping, with their successful reunion in 2014 that opened new doors for the band, giving them another chance to push further than ever. Over the past decade, they released two albums, The New Messiah in 2015 and Poltergeist in 2020, both of which would shine a new light for a much broader horizon that lies beyond, and now come 2024, their official fifth full-length album Metal Merchants is nearing its release, marking the 10-year anniversary since the reunion. Sometime after my pleasant listening experience, I managed to get in touch with the band's vocalist Christer Göransson, and during our conversation, we talked about the upcoming album Metal Merchants, the reunion of Mindless Sinner in 2014, and other things along the way such as working with Olof Wikstrand of Enforcer on a secret project. I hope you will stay along for the ride and enjoy this conversation because it was really an honor and pleasure to chat with Christer about all these subjects.

Vladimir

Hi Christer, how are you doing?

I'm fine. And you?

Doing great. I mean, you know, keeping myself busy. I recently checked out your upcoming album Metal Merchants, and because my first impression is still relatively fresh, I must say that this is perhaps your best album out of the latest three, and perhaps the best Mindless Sinner album since your debut Turn on the Power from 1986. What was it like working on Metal Merchants and how does it compare to your previous experience with Poltergeist in 2020?

Well, we wanted to make an album better than the last one. So, we started out in late 2021, recorded drums and like a reference guitar, and then we gathered and put on the bass, the guitars, the vocals, and everything. And then, we had, like, 11 songs. And in 2022, our drummer, Tommy, was leaving the band. So, we got a new drummer, Linus, and we had 2 more songs that we wanted to record. So that's why Linus is playing on 2 tracks, and Tommy is playing on 11 tracks. So, we left Tommy's drums. This is like a tribute to Tommy.

I was actually very fortunate that the version that I checked out was the one that contains a total of the 13 tracks because the tracks from 11 to 13 are classed as bonus tracks on the CD and digital version because I don't think it's included on the vinyl. When I was listening to that album, the first then tracks were very good, but with the 3 bonus tracks, it's like if you really are somebody who loves this band, you're just giving yourself an extra dose of pleasure with those three tracks because they're fucking amazing.

Thank you. Yeah, we think that it was very hard to choose the songs for the vinyl. We see it as the vinyl, you know, 10 tracks. And, we don't think that the 3 bonus tracks are worse songs than the others, but we wanted to have, like a red thread throughout the album. So that the 10 on the vinyl fitted together. So, the last 3 became bonus tracks.

From what I understood, Metal Merchants is considered as a continuation of its predecessor Poltergeist, because the band essentially continues where it left off 4 years ago. Is there some kind of conceptual storyline that connects the two albums?

No, it's not. It's just that we wanted to make an album where we left off with Poltergeist and not make a less good album. We wanted to grow with a new one. And we think that Metal Merchants is the best album that we have done.

Like I already said, it's probably the best out of the latest three because when I revisited the previous two, The New Messiah and Poltergeist, this one is definitely on the highest scale, and it really goes back to when I was listening to Masters of Evil EP and Turn on the Power. This one is exactly what a Mindless Sinner fan was looking for, that good old heavy metal, and it really feels like very good punchy, energetic songwriting. And speaking of songwriting, one of this album perhaps has the best songwriting of the three, but one track that won me over was "Mountain of Om", and it's arguably the best song on the album because it's so well-written and perhaps the heaviest banger on Metal Merchants. What can you tell me about working on that song in particular?

When we write the songs, it's usually me and the two guitarists who have the ideas, and the bass player and drummer, they bring their pieces to the songs as well. So that's why we write the songs together. But the ideas come from one person or two persons. So, this particular song is from the guitarist Magnus Danneblad, he wrote this song, and it's about a legend from where we live. It's outside our town, in our county, there's a mountain called "Omberg" in Swedish, and the legend says there was a witch who lived in the mountain and the song is about that legend. She was like a she-wolf. Lived in mountains, and she was evil. And there was a man, I don't know what his name was, but the legend says that he wanted the witch. He was in love with her. So, the story is about that legend, the song.

Is there like a monument, statue, or anything that kind of gives tribute to that local legend?

I don't think so. There's like a park, you can go there, you can climb the mountain and see the view. It's by the lake, but I don't think there's a monument.

I guess it's almost like the mountain itself is like a monument because of the legend. So, if you go there and you hear the story, I guess you can almost see that whole scenario going from start to finish, you just picture everything in your head. But I'm surprised that you didn't actually take this and make a concept album out of it. Do you think it could have been made?

No. I don't think so. I don't think we are a concept band. I don't think we can write an album in concept. Maybe we can, but I don't think so. It's because I think it's a very hard task to write a concept album.

If you really want to leave it to somebody, leave it to King Diamond hahaha. He always manages somehow to make, he always manages to make an album out of a horrific storyline, and that's all based on what comes in.

Yeah hahaha.

Something that I thought along the way while listening to Metal Merchants is how its execution feels very similar to the last three Judas Priest albums, but in my opinion, this really tops that performance over a mile with much more energy and enthusiasm. Was the band in any way inspired to take their musical approach to be on a similar scale to what Judas Priest and Saxon have been doing recently?

Do you mean as our direct influence?

Influence, not just in musical terms, but also how the band expresses through the music.

So, we write songs and they come out as they are. We don't have a goal, we don't wanna sound like them. We just write songs, and we record them. And if they're good, they end up on the album.  But Judas Priest is our main idol. That's my personal favorite band, so I guess it shapes me.

Yeah, and of course, it resonates in that sense.

Yeah.

One of the biggest highlights about this album, as well as your previous two, is how your vocal performance is still as great as ever before, and I have a hard time believing that you're almost 60 years old, because your vocals haven't aged a day and they are still incredibly fresh. How did you manage to keep your voice in such a condition after all these years?

 I don't know, I just sing, I just belt it out, I don't have any recipe for it.

I hope you don't rely on technology fixing your voice in the mix, or on artificial intelligence hahaha.

No, none of that. I'm just saying that's the way I am. I never had, like, a bad singing day. When I sing it's just natural for me. I don't have any problem with it. I never get a sore throat or anything.

Looking back at your debut album Turn on the Power, it's still an untouchable Swedish heavy metal classic of an album, and the band certainly managed to expand and improve throughout various stages of its lifecycle. How do you look back on those early days of the band? And do you have any good memories from the 80's?

No, because it was a struggle. We were struggling to get gigs and record labels. We are a very famous non-famous band if you know what I mean. An underground band. If you are on a certain level, it's easy, you know, to go on tour or play, but we have never reached that. And the 80s was very hard too, we played almost around where we lived here in Linköping, and we played some in Stockholm and other cities in Sweden, but we never played abroad in the 80's live. And the album, when we recorded it, I don't remember. We were glad that we got it on tape.

I believe that it must have been very difficult times, because, whenever I look back at the stages of the band afterwards when you did Missin' Pieces, which was more of a kind of hard rock/adult-oriented rock style mixed with what you've been doing on the previous album and the ways you were trying to develop to be more out there, I think it was just, like, it was only a matter of time. A lot of bands that don't succeed at that stage when you would expect them to, there's some point in their lives when there's like a right time and right place. And a lot of bands such as yourself have reached that status of respect because you also performed at Keep It True Festival, and Keep It True has been very respected and beloved these days by old-school heavy metal fans. So, do you think in a way that, when Mindless Sinner came back 10 years ago, it was like the right time and right place?

That's interesting because 10 years ago, we got a question from the Swedish festival called Muskelrock. They asked us if we wanted to do like a celebration because it was 30 years after the Master of Evil release. The band didn't exist at the time, so I said to him "Yeah, we can do that. I think we can. I can call the lads and get the band together if you want to". So, we did that, and we didn't expect anything, we thought it was a one gig. But the response was overwhelming. And then we got offers to play abroad in different countries and we got a record deal and everything. So, we just carried on.

It's like a rebirth because the band was born again. And the rebirth was really like a phoenix rising from the ashes because some of the bands I've interviewed have already said the same. The 80s were not good for them when you would expect it to be, but when they came back, it was a completely different story because thanks to the Internet, people have more access to new music and they have more access to different bands, and in such, it helps the bands to be rediscovered and get a cult status. This next question might be a bit controversial, but I think it should be brought up anyway. The Swedish metal scene has got its recognition thanks to the contemporary popular artists who came to the scene a decade or two after Mindless Sinner, but I think a lot of people tend to overlook the fact that Mindless Sinner is one of the classic Swedish heavy metal acts, alongside other great bands such as Heavy Load, Gotham City and 220 Volt to name a few. I personally think that you really deserve a better reputation worldwide. How do you personally feel about the current reputation that Mindless Sinner has after it's been reborn?

Well, I can hear what you're saying because I read a review one time, I think it was a popularized review, and the guy who wrote said something like that we sounded like Hammerfall, but I guess it's the other way around. Because we started in like 1981, and we sound like we do. And Hammerfall was formed in 1997 or 1998, somewhere around that time, they might have heard us anytime. I don't know that, but we have certainly not taken anything from them. But we feel great because when we come to different countries and play, everybody sings along to the songs, and they know who you are, who we are.

Speaking of younger bands, I personally feel that the significance of Mindless Sinner still lives on, because at this point, we have bands like Enforcer, Helvetets Port, Tyrann and Lethal Steel which carry the musical influence of your classic works. What is your opinion on this new generation of traditional heavy metal from Sweden?

Yeah. I think I think they're great. There's a band called Ambush as well.

Yeah, great band.

I think they're great, all of them are great, and they are carrying the torch forward. And even though these bands weren't even born in the eighties, they like that kind of style, and they're keeping it alive in the scene in Sweden with the new bands.

Yeah, exactly. And I think these bands are the ones that kinda deserve more recognition of bringing back old-school heavy metal more so than Hammerfall, because I think Hammerfall is like a modern interpretation of classic heavy and power metal, they might have been also influenced by Mindless Sinner, but compare them to what we have with bands like Enforcer and Ambush as well, they are much closer to what you guys did because these were people who were born in the 80's. And these are not the kind of people who are pretending that they're bringing back the 80s. They don't present themselves in that way, they just do what they do, and in doing so, they give a very good authentic feeling. And I personally would never say that these bands are just reliving the past or that they're just some sort of gimmick bands if you know what I mean.

Yeah, they are reinventing the past.

Yeah, but in a more positive light nowadays, because a lot of people really look up to anything that came out of that era, because it's like a golden era of heavy metal.

Yeah.

I actually remembered that I've also seen a post recently that you are working on another project with Olof Wikstrand of Enforcer. What can you tell me about that?

Nothing, hahah. I have sung on a song, but I can't tell you the song. It's gonna be a project. It's gonna be out there soon, but it's got a lot of different Swedish musicians on it.

Okay, so it's not like an Enforcer song with your guest appearance?

No. It's nothing like that.

Now you got me more curious because I would actually really want to hear that. I don't wanna ask who is also involved, but if it's something very big and very ambitious, I'll be on the lookout. Thank you for giving me the heads up, and I'll definitely follow along as it goes. Are there any plans to do any shows in Europe or anywhere around Europe to promote the new album and be more out there for the fans?

Yeah, we have lots of things cooking, you know, in the works, but I can't tell you anything yet. But definitely it's going out there. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Are there any bands that you would like to bring with you on the tour?

I don't know, I guess our band has never been like a touring band. Even in the start, we never toured. We played single gigs, and that's what we are doing now as well. So, I guess we won't do any longer tours, maybe, you know, festivals around Europe, hopefully, and some other things, maybe.

Considering how some of my friends here from Serbia are big fans of Mindless Sinner, they can't wait to hear the entire album, because they heard "Speed Demon" and that got them very excited. I just told them "Speed Demon is not even the best song on the album. Keep a lookout when the album's out". The wait will pay off nicely.

Yeah. We're very pleased with the album. It turned out really good for us and the whole production on the sleeve and the songs obviously, it's a great record.

Thank you so much for doing this interview, Christer. Best of luck to you and the rest of Mindless Sinner with the release of Metal Merchants. Are there any final words?

Thank you very much, and thank you for the great review of the album. We are very humbled. And you said you were from Serbia?

Yes.

We would love to come to play in Serbia.

Oh, for sure. We have a local promoter who brought Enforcer last year, and they made a hell of a gig in Belgrade, it was so great. And even Tygers of Pan Tang performed this year in this same club. Every time they bring a band from the traditional heavy metal branch, it always leaves one hell of an impression. And you will always see these new kids who worship the good old sound of 80's heavy metal.

Yeah. Hook us up with the promoter.

I'll make sure to have you guys hooked up with the manager to play in both Croatia and Serbia. That will be great fun.

Yeah. We will come.