Deranged, one of the few Swedish death metal bands that came out during the early nineties that have always done their own kind of no remorse showing, intense and truly brutal death metal. No matter what other bands around was and is doing, you can be sure that Deranged will always deliver the most brutal and violent death metal man can create! Deranged has been around since 1991 has now received an almost "cult" alike status among the worldwide death metal scene as being one of the most, if not the most brutal and intense death metal bands man has ever experienced. The kind of band that might destroy themselves but they’ll never sell out!

Recently the veteran Swedish death metallers released album number seven, entitled ‘The Redlight Murder Case', with nary a hint of progression to sully their blackened hearts. And that will make a lot of death metal fans very happy indeed, for Deranged don't mess about with any of that pesky musical progression nonsense. No, it's thirty-five minutes of brutal death metal, thank you very much, no refunds, no exchanges.

So therefore we had a little talk to Rikard Wermén, drummer for Deranged, this is what he had to say.

First of all, how are you?

Ok… Same shit you know…

Second, I’m not familiar with your band so tell me something about Deranged, the band is around for seventeen years now, how come I didn’t hear from you that much?

I guess if you’re into the whole brutal death metal scene, Deranged would at least be familiar to you. I guess it depends on what you’re actually really into you know. Deranged is might known for being a band that are not licking  the media´s ass either. We let people know what we want them to know… Mean, what’s the use in sending out news mail if I change the head on my snare drum as some acts tends to do? The only thing worse than posers are media whores. 

How did you launch into writing the material for ‘The Redlight Murder Case' after your previous album, did ideas come easily so that you just had to write them down or was it more of a careful composing thing?

Nah, we just wrote a bunch of songs and that was it. We’re not the kind of band that will have like band meetings where we discuss in what musical direction if any we’ll take the band. We just play and if it sounds cool we’ll keep it. Simple as that. The ideas came pretty easy though… We’re not “overwriting” anything. Whenever you fuck around with a certain riff or arrangement a longer time it’ll just turn out to crap anyway. 

What were the goals you had in mind when you started to record ‘The Redlight Murder Case' and did you have a certain idea of what you wanted to do, any elements you definitely wanted to have on the album?

Basically just to do a good album. And as for wanting to have certain elements as you put it… Once again, we just play and if it sounds cool, we’ll keep it. This is how we as a band sound like, everything we did was a conscious decision. We’re an honest act. What you see are what you get.

Who was responsible for writing the songs and the lyrics on the new album?

It’s pretty much always been Johan and I writing the music. He has a riff and we start to build the song around that. Later on whenever we have a couple of new songs we’ll do a quick and rough demo recording, just something for me to have while working on the lyrics and vocal patterns. This time around I wrote all of the lyrics except for two. A good friend of mine, Kevin Marshall wrote most of the lyrics and I would just rewrite some shit so it fitted. Still this time both Kevin Marshall and another friend of mine Oskar Pålsson from Coldworker contributed with some nice lyrics.  

I think the main theme on ‘The Redlight Murder Case' is clear, but can you clarify some lyrics / song titles for us.

I basically thought it would be a fun thing to base the song titles and the lyrics on giallo movies. You know those rather violent Italian produced splatter / horror / detective movies? As a matter of fact, all of the song titles are directly taken from movies from that very genre. Deranged has always lyrics wise been a splatter horror movie based band. Just reflect my big interest for the genre.

Could you please describe the implications of the title ‘The Redlight Murder Case’?

The title would just be suitable for the above mentioned idea I had… There’s indeed something sleazy about red light districts, right?

How important is it to you that people pay attention to the lyrics apart from listening to the music?

To be honest, I put a lot more time and energy on trying to do a good vocal pattern then a good lyric you know… Still, the lyrics have always been a big part of what the band is all about.

How hard was it to come up with a follow-up on your previous album ‘Obscenities in B-Flat’?

I personally really like the “Obscenities… “ CD. Probably along with “The Redlight…” the two Deranged CD’s that nowadays reflect our sound. How we sound today. Still, it was rather easy to top the “Obscenities…” disc. Once again, not that I’m saying it’s a bad CD or anything just that one grows musically with time you know… At least, Deranged does.

In song writing, what is according to Deranged the utmost important ingredient for a song?

If we the band likes it.

Back to the writing process again, is there any typical way that a Deranged song comes into being? What comes first, lyrics or melodies? Is it like you sit down and write a new song because you need more material now or do you wait until you get an idea?

We always do the music first. We usually start to write whenever we need new music but if we have no ideas, we’ll just jam some old songs. No need in forcing anything you know. Earlier would we be only constantly writing for a certain period of time.  This time around would we only be working on the new songs once a week and that was it. Rest of the time would we be jamming old songs or whatever… That was rather good. Gave one perspective and time to figure out whether it was something good or not you know.

You recently signed a deal with ‘Regain Records’, what was the reason why you joined them and give this change also a positive reaction on the recording of ‘The Redlight Murder Case’?

We were signed to Listenabel Rec. earlier but things weren’t working out. They wanted one thing and we another and it come to a point where at least I felt that we couldn’t continue. I knew Regain Rec. since before and pretty much just gave them a call and wondered if they wanted to give it a try.

You recorded this album, (like your previous album) in the Berno Studios, was this a conscious choice?

Yeah… We’ve been recording at Berno’s since ´94 or something. We have recorded lots of CD’s over there. Not only with Deranged, also with other constellations. Mean, Berno is like a good half hour drive from where I live so it’s not only a great studio, also located damn near so why go for something else?

How did the recording process proceed and how much time did you spend in the studio?

It sounds like a damn cliché but everything worked out real smooth. No real hassles or fuck ups whatsoever. We spent all in all 14 days recording, mixing and mastering the album.

What was the difference between the recording process from the previous albums?

To be honest, more or less the same… We just went in and played and that was it.

Have you received any feedback on the new album yet? How do you feel about this album – are you satisfied with the outcome or would you have liked to have changed anything in retrospective?

Once again, it sounds like a cliché but the response we have got so far have been really great. A lot of people actually claim that it’s our best CD so far so… There’s always some small shit here and there you wish would had turned out differently, both song and production wise but hell… We’ll just make it better the next time you know.

Do you have any favorites on ‘The Redlight Murder Case’, songs that you think are somehow above the others and what about the CD are you most proud of?

It would might be the songs we’ll be doing live. “Watch Me When I Kill”, “The Killer Wore Black Gloves”, “Gently Before She Dies”, “The Redlight Murderess” and “Death Walks On High Heels”.

What songs and bands do you listen to these days?

As a matter of fact, I’ve been listening a lot to more hardcore and metalcore acts like Sworn Enemy, Full Blown Chaos, Hatebreed, Pro-Pain and Agnostic Front lately just to mention a few. Except from that I’ve been listening a lot to the new Disfear CD.

What is your opinion on the (death) metal scene these days, is there anything missing?

To be honest, there are so many new acts popping up nowadays that are fucking great. You have for example Dawn Of Demise from Denmark and Voltyuron from Sweden. As for missing anything… It would be a higher public attendance at shows and that people bought more CD’s.

Which album has been your biggest musical influence, one that made you think “this is what I want to do!”?

I would say “Reign In Blood”. Not the most original choice but it was the first more extreme metal album, except from Venom I heard…

Okay, if you could choose three bands to get on stage with, who would they be?

I would say Gwar just coz I enjoy watching them live… Besides that, just about any band that we would get along with. Doesn’t matter really…

With seven albums under your belt, how far has Deranged surpassed your original dreams and what would you say is the most rewarding part of being in the band?

When we first started out, our dream or more correct goal was to write a couple of decent songs and record a demo tape. We did so… After that our main focus was to release a 7”s single. We released two… You see, one got to put up smaller goals all the time just to keep things going. The most rewarding thing is naturally to play a sold out show with an insane mosh pit and constant stage dive.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself personally and the kinds of things that motivate you in your writing, your poetry, and your lyrics. What are you personally into?

I would say I’m pretty much a music nerd in general. Music is pretty much what I’m doing and besides that, just watches a lot of movies. And as for what actually motivates me to do what I’m doing… I would say coz I enjoy doing it. Reason enough.

Finally, where do you see Deranged going to the coming years, or do you not think to the future too much?

Just keep on doing what we’re doing but do it better.

How about touring ? Are you going on a European tour as a support act, or will we see you in the smaller, but nicer, clubs as a headliner?

We have a few shows coming up later on this month and besides that we have plenty of festivals to do this summer. Might possible we’ll do a European tour as support act later on this year. We’ll see what happens.

Is there anything left unmentioned? Any last statement or anything you'd like to add...

-Death to posers!

x

Current line-up

Thomas Ahlgren - Bass 
Rikard Wermén - Drums 

Johan Axelsson - Guitar 

Martin Schönherr - Vocals 

Former members:  

Calle Fäldt - Vocals, Bass 

Andreas Deblèn - Vocals, Drums 

Fredrick Sandberg - Vocals  

Jean-Paul Asenov - Bass  

Dan Bengsston - Bass 

Albums:

Architects Of Perversions (1994) MCD

Sculpture Of The Dead (1996) MCD

Rated X (1996)

High on Blood (1998)

III (2000)

Deranged (2001)

Plainfield Cemetary (2002)

Obscenities in B Flat (2006)

The Redlight Murder Case (2008)