Antichrist are the new Thrash Metal sensation from Sweden. The band consists of Sven Nilsson (drums), Anton Sunesson (vocals), Gabriel Forslund (guitars), Filip Runesson (guitars) and Gobbe Hennigsson (bass). No other than Fenriz of Darkthrone fame named Antichrist "Band of the Week" for his popular internet column. Of course, Antichrist themselves are honoured by Fenriz' kind words: "Darkthrone was, and still is, a great band and Fenriz seems to have great t'ste when it comes to Heavy Metal!" That's true indeed. But Fenriz is not the only established musician to carry the flag for Antichrist. According to widespread rumors a certain Entombed member was seen with an Antichrist-shirt at one of their very first gigs (possibly at the Swedish Muskelrock festival where Antichrist appears regularly every year). It's no wonder that Antichrist have a heart for the Swedish heroes of the early 1990's wave of original Death Metal: "Entombed was one of the first extreme Metal bands we listened to and of course we love their stuff (especially their early work). But even if we like them a lot and have been very much inspired by them in other projects, you probably can't hear that in Antichrist. We are also inspired by the innovation and creativity of the Swedish Death Metal movement in the late 1980's and early 1990's." Generally, however, Antichrist's influences are much broader: "We all listen to a lot of different music. Not only Thrash Metal. Everything from King Crimson, Camel, El Ritual and Blue ?yster Cult to Possessed, Morbid Saint, Slayer and so on. Good music is good music! The list could go on forever ... We are spending a lot of time together with our friends listening to old forgotten Heavy Metal from the past." The history of Antichrist goes back to the year 2007. They recorded their first demo called "Crushing Metal Tape" in 2008, followed by "Put to Death" two years later. Before Antichrist, the different members have been active in more or less obscure bands such as Witchgrave, Eviscerated, Disborn, The Rotting and Awaken Horror. However, it is to be reckoned that Antichrist will immediately surpass those groups in popularity: "That's probably true. Most of them (except Witchgrave) have only released a demo or two. Eviscerated also appears on some compilations. When we started out, there weren't that many Thrash Metal bands in Sweden. There were more bands playing Death Metal. It feels like it'still is. Nowadays Antichrist is the most important band for us and to deliver our speeding, skull crushing Thrash Metal to whoever craves it, is just a fucking pleasure." It'surely is! You can be sure that the songs of their debut longplayer "Forbidden World" are going to take the world by storm! Here's a little insight in how the album came about: "'Forbidden World' was recorded at'some friend's studio in 2010/2011. We've had a lot of trouble with amps and guitars and shit which has contributed to a prolonged recording process. It contains 10 songs. One song from each demo and 8 new ones. We can honestly say that we are very proud of this album. The songwriting is a little bit more serious and complicated now than a few years ago when we made our first demo. But the music is still in the same vein as before." Judging by the pure class of raw, old-school Thrash anthems such as "Victims of the Blade", "Militia of Death" or "Terror Dimension" the album "Forbidden World" will definitely hit the Metal underground like a cluster bomb. But maybe even the mainstream Metal public will get what Antichrist are about? "We don't know yet but we do not assume that the mainstream audience will understand what we do and why we create this music. But to us this is not as important as what the underground thinks of this record. This was created for us and people like us, people who will understand and enjoy this record. We realize that the masses probably won't be too excited about it ..." Alongside acts such as Portrait, In Solitude, Iron Lamb, Slingblade or new Thrash merchants Dr. Living Dead, Antichrist may well be on their way to leading the attack of new Swedish Metal acts. "You can't deny that there are many bands from Sweden that are very successful right now", Antichrist'say. "We don't really feel that we are part of any movement really. Some of the mentioned bands are just friends of ours. We like some, dislike some and some seem to be so far away from what we are doing, that we can't'see ourselves as a part of the same scene at all." Matthias Mader
