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.

8 long years of silence passed and now Hypocrisy are back on the stage with their 13th album called "Worship" (review here). You can find the typical trademarks that define the music of the Swedes and also the topics Peter Tägtgren dealt with before like aliens and conspiracy theories. I took the chance to ask him more about all these topics and also about some things of the past (like about his side-project "The Abyss") questions were answered. Enjoy the interview.

Michael

Hi Peter, how are you doing?

Well, I think I am getting a cold but nothing too bad, thanks.

First of all, congratulations for the 30th anniversary of the band. I guess it is a question that many people will ask, why did it take so long to write and record a new Hypocrisy album?

Well, I've been busy as hell (laughs). Eight years went by – wooooof. I mean we constantly toured with End of Disclosure and I've toured with Pain and released an album ("Coming Home"; M.) and I've toured with Lindemann and released two albums ("Skills in Pills" and "F&M"; M.) so eight years went by fast.

I have listened to "Worship" now several times and I would call it the "missing link" between the older Hypocrisy albums like "Abducted" or "The 4th Dimension" and newer stuff. Tracks like 'Worship' or 'Chemical Whore' and your growling vocals are very old school. On the other hand there are a lot of atmospheric, slower songs on it. Would you agree with that?

I mean it basically is me writing songs and they will sound like me (laughs) and that's Hypocrisy. I mean my only thing was just to write better songs and a fatter production. That was my goal from the beginning, just to write as good songs as I can with Hypocrisy. There is no try to reinvent the wheel, it doesn't make sense to do that. I think Hypocrisy has a unique style and sound and I guess we should treasure that. And it's just natural, it is the way how I write music. I mean, Michael and Horgh contribute with a couple of riffs but mainly it's me who did all this, except that one which is Sebastians (his son; M.) but that's another story. When I write stuff, it becomes my style (laughs). It's really hard to say, I mean Michael has his certain style that he put into the band in the 90s but nowadays he doesn't write as much as he used to for the last two or three albums. It's just the way it is sometimes, some people can spit out riffs less they write, and some people really take a long time to do it but they do less but better. So, it's no big deal with that.

You have many different topics on the album. The first video that was released is 'Chemical Whore' where you accuse the pharmaceutical industry to make us all addict. Was the opioid crisis in the USA a major reason for the track?

No, this track was written in 2018 or beginning of '19. We did the video in September 2019. It's just about thoughts I have about the pharmaceutical industry, how powerful it is and how easy it is to get addicted to pills. Pills for everything (laughs). Pills for upfit and pills for downs. I've seen a lot of friends go really on this benzene shit because it's so addicting. Some people say it's making as addicted as heroin. It is pretty bad and these big pharmaceuticals they really make sure that people take the pills because they make more money. And the doctors get kind of percentage the more they put shit on people.

Of course, you also deal with some conspiracy theories like on 'Dead World' or 'They Will Arrive'. How much of these things do you personally believe in?

I believe a lot, in lot of things that I sing on the album. It's my thoughts, my theories and I've done a lot of research about things left and right so this is my story, but I believe it.

You always dealt with conspiracy theories. Do you think the internet is a threat to society now that everybody can spread some bullshit and make others believe it?

I think we live in a fucking society today where algorithm is the boss. The artificial intelligence is the boss for us what we can say and what we can do. If you say something wrong, they take you away, I mean on the net. It's a kind of frightening situation I would say, where the computer decides whether you are right or wrong. Of course, someone has to program it first but in the future it's gonna do it by itself and nobody influences the thing with it.

Just like in Terminator…

Yeah, exactly! It's a kind of scary thing. Of course, the other way is like people can spread stupid shit instead and disinform so it's a little bit of a give and take. When you open this kind of thing it will become like it is now because some people throw propaganda, idiots like politicians as you see (laughs). They're lying straight in your face and on the other hand you can't say what you want because otherwise you will be blocked on the net. I guess it's a natural development of how things are, unfortunately. So, it's both good and bad and talking about politicians, I wrote on 'Greedy Bastards', you saw yesterday the 'Pandoras Box' and the Panama thing, that's what I wrote about three years ago. It's my theories and my thoughts and my research that make me write these lyrics.

But of course, everybody had nothing to do with these revelations that were made yesterday. All the people refused….

Of course! All these politicians are just pocketing money and they're not there to speak for the people, they are there for speaking for their own pockets. I mean, of course everybody don't want to pay taxes, you want to keep that money. And today, I don't know what the taxes are going to because it's bullshit all the way. Taxes were an invention by some stupid idiot in the 17th century and all suddenly it was just a goal, so everybody pays taxes now (laughs).

How it all did start for you, when did you get interested in alien stuff and so on? For me it was Erich von Däniken whose books I read as a child and of course The X-Files (back in those days everybody laughed about conspiracy theories, right?)

For me it started in the 70s. Anything from watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" to the first "Alien" movie, things like that. In the 80s I got a lot of VHS with documentary series about all kinds of paranormal things and then I came really into it. These VHS was all before the internet of course and that was the only way to get it.

What were your thoughts when the US government stated that some kind of UFOs does exist and the report was released?

It's just a crack of shit. It's just the version for us to look the other way on things than what's really happening in the world today. They make you look one way, and they do something on the other side so to speak. And it's not called UFOs anymore, they call it UAPs. The thing is, why they call it UAPs is because they deny the UFOs in the past. Now it's if they're say there is UAP existence they didn't lie about the UFOs (laughs). I don't know – I will believe it when I see it. I think these Tic-Tac things were drones and that was actually 2004 from the beginning but it never made to the press. There were a lot of people who saw it before that and in December 2017 they went out with it on the New York Times, CNN and blabla…it's a propaganda thing to confuse you just a little bit.

Yes, we will see what will come out of it! I read that you wrote the track 'Dead World' together with your son Sebastian, besides some other tracks. How was it for you to write tracks with him?

Well, me and Sebastian started a father and son thing in 2017, just sitting and writing riffs together because we had so many riffs in our heads and I think we recorded about 11 songs, but they were more like skeletons in demo versions, no vocals no lyrics on it. We just invented a little bit and did something together and, in that session, 'Dead World' came out from Sebastian. He wrote that song and I wrote the lyrics on top of that and when we were done with these 11 skeleton songs in demo version, we talked about if we make it real now or if we should just move on and we decided to just move on. After a while when you write so much stuff and Sebastian jumped on his own solo thing, I tasted blood to start on a new Hypocrisy album. I always liked that 'Dead World' song he did and asked him if I could use it for Hypocrisy because it could work pretty well and he agreed.

You released two videos yet and they are very well produced. Why didn't you do such cool videos in the past (at least I couldn't find such almost short films on the internet)?

I would say….eh…. money (laughs)? It costs a lot of money to make these things and also my new manager is very open-minded and very smart. She had some contact with these two directors from the past, at least one of them and the other one she saw some stuff he has been doing for more commercial Russian artist and so we tried this. I had a party in my head with Andrey (Kezzyn; M.) who did the video for 'Dead World'. I liked the way he was thinking, and he was doing it and in September 2019 we did the Russia, Ukraine and Belarus tour and we came in five days before the tour started in St. Petersburg and the girl, Agatha, gave me the script what she thought about the song, and I liked the idea and we shot the video before that. It was cool to do, and everything was pretty much done in 2019. We did another video in April 2019 in America for other song that's gonna come out and did the photo shoots there and in 2018 I was doing the album cover. Everything was done many years before it was released to be honest. Usually it's the opposite – you finish the album, you have all the songs and then you go "oh shit, what are we do now?" We need photos, we need videos and this and that and with my new management it's great. They're always a step ahead which is good because I don't have the time to think about those things.

I read that the album was already written in 2020 but you held it back until you are able to go on tour again. How do you feel now it is possible?

I'm happy. I think it sounds good, we're not trying to reinvent the wheel with Hypocrisy. We just trying to make a great album with good songs. As I said, everything was written in 2018/19 and in 2020 I started mixing the album. Sometimes with the lyrics and stuff you think: "Oh, holy shit" (laughs). Some people think 'Chemical Whore' is an anti-vaccine song but it's just stupid because there was no Corona when the song was done but if they wanna talk shit about it, I don't care.

Do you have any tour plans so far? Maybe a special "Penetralia" anniversary tour next year? I saw that you're going to play on three festivals but nothing more.

It's because all the 2020 festivals were postponed to 2021. 2019 we did a lot of festivals and we thought that 2020 we're not gonna do anything because we were reworking on the new album. Therefore, we missed a lot of slots for 2021 because that's the 2020 slots (laughs). Let's see what we gonna do. I mean we have headline tour for America lined-up that we gonna come out with tour dates on I don't know yet when. We have that plan, but it will come out. And what we try to get is as many festivals as possible during the summer and then in Europe we try to get a headliner tour in September or October. It depends on how the venues are available. I'm sure there is a huge waiting list for all these venues because all the bands are out to play and some of them disappeared also and it's gonna be tricky but I hope we really can do the whole world before 2022 is over.

What do you think has changed in the band within the last 30 years and is there maybe something that you miss from the former days?

Good question. I miss the writing between all the members like we did in the 90s or early 00s. But that's something you can't really change. People take a long time to write things and you just have to accept it. But in the end, 'Chemical Whore' all three of us contributed with ideas for the music. That's pretty cool that all three of us did and it's not so many songs that all three have contributed to. There are some few songs like 'Final Chapter' or 'Eraser' we all three contributed for and those songs are really great. That's what I miss a little bit, but it always ends up on my shoulders and that's why in 1997 I wanted to quit (laughs). I just have to accept that, so there is nothing more to think about, I guess. I just go on with my raise and if the guys want to jump on it, let's do it.

Now one more question – are there any plans concerning Pain or my favorite side-project The Abyss?

Yeah "The Abyss" …no forget it! I can't play drums anymore, not that fast. I haven't touched the drums in I don't know how many years so it will take me a while to warm-up to play this extreme stuff (laughs). So that will not happen, and I need Lars and Michael because they were the main songwriters for that project. With Pain, as soon as I'm done with all the promotion, I will sit down and start writing some tunes for Pain because when the Hypocrisy stuff is done, it's always good to bring out the Pain stuff after that and just not sit and wait until the Hypocrisy stuff is done and then start writing for Pain because that would take even longer. It's hard to balance these things but I'm gonna try to start writing some shit now and let's see if it comes out end of '22 or the beginning of '23, I really don't know.

The last words are yours!

I hope that everybody enjoys the new album and I hope to see everybody on tour and festivals!