As every self-respecting Metal fan knows, Nemesis, the brainchild of a certain Leif Edling, was the predecessor of Candlemass (maybe the world?s most important Doom band after Black Sabbath). However, Nemesis was not the first-ever band Leif played in. That was Witchcraft. He left Witchcraft in 1981 and today describes them as ?even worse than Nemesis?. Together with Anders Walling on guitar and Anders Walterson on drums, who both came from the band Surgery, Edling formed Nemesis in 1982 (at the commercial peak of the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement). Nemesis played their first-ever live gig (still as a trio) a year later. Leif Edling remembers it quite vividly: ?Yeah, it was in early 1983 at a youth club where we rehearsed (Grimbog?rden in Upplands V?sby). We were absolutely crap of course but the younger kids (and girls) liked us so it wasn?t a total disaster after all, even if all our mat's hated our band.? This little suburb of Stockholm also was a breeding ground for other Swedish Heavy Metal pioneers like Mery, Rise or Universe. However, Nemesis? influences were all Brit'sh, as Leif Edling cit's Venom, Black Sabbath, Mot?rhead and even Gaskin as his heroes of the early 1980?s. He had been going to see bands live himself since the late 1970?s: ?I saw Rush on their ?Hemispheres? tour in 1979 and Cheap Trick and ZZ Top the same year, but before that I saw loads of 70?s Punk and Heavy Rock gigs locally.?
In 1984, Swedish label Fingerprint (who by then had already released albums by homegrown bands like Axewitch, Gotham City and Wizz) put out Nemesis? debut mini-album ?The Day Of Retribution?. However, this was done more by accident than by design. The five songs ?Black Messiah?, ?In God We Trust?, ?Theme Of The Guardians?, ?The King Is Dead? and finally ?Goodnight? were nothing more than demo recordings. Fingerprint manufactured some t'st pressings and the band was so overawed that they even forgot to ask for a contract! In no time ?The Day Of Retribution? was released commercially. Leif Edling thinks that the circulation of the original vinyl was exactly 495 copies: ?That way you didn?t have to report it to the nordic copyright bureau (NCB) and you didn?t have to pay any mechanical royalties.? It is a small wonder that today the record is a precious collector?s item which according to Leif Edling sells for anything between 40 and 200 Euros. Even 27 years after its intial release Leif is still sat'sfied with the production of the album: ?Sure. It was recorded in one of Stockholm?s best'studios at the time: Studio Bastun. The studio was way better than we were, hahaha!? Indeed Nemesis beat the other Swedish bands signed to Fingerprint by miles or as Leif himself puts it: ?I thought most'stuff on Fingerprint was crap.? However, as we have already learned, Nemesis was not the first'swedish Heavy Metal band. So what did Leif think of his colleagues back then? His answer is straight to the point: ?Overdrive, Mercy, Gotham City, Axewitch etc. were all pretty bad if you ask me. The only Swedish bands we truly respected in those days were Heavy Load because they were the first'swedish Metal band, Neon Rose because they were the first good Heavy Rock band coming out of Sweden, and Yngwie Malmsteen because he played the shit out of anyone and everything back then.?
The N.W.O.B.H.M. band Angel Witch was a huge influence on Nemesis in the early days. Leif even said thanks to Kevin Heybourne for inspiration on the back cover of ?The Day Of Retribution? and reveals: ?Our song ?Goodnight? was an Angel Witch rip-off, but you see, it was never meant to be on the record. Things happened to quick. We wanted our newest'song ?Warrior Queen? to be on it instead of ?Goodnight?. It was the title track for God?s sake!?
The original pressing of ?The Day Of Retribution? did not have a lyric sheet (unlike lots of releases in the early 1980?s). Leif Edling does not know the reason: ?I have no idea. Nobody thought of it I guess. It was just a demo after all that Fingerprint released. We were very surprised when they all of a sudden gave us a t'st pressing. We wanted to do a proper album but we were of course flattered when the demo was turned into a mini-album.? Because a lyric sheet was missing, it was quite hard for the listener to pin down Nemesis? exact lyrical approach. Were songs like ?Black Messiah?, ?The King Is Dead? or ?Theme Of The Guardians? meant to be interpreted as occult, outright'satanic or maybe even Christian? Leif Edling tells a different'story: ?It was all about'sword and sorcery and good versus evil. The lyrical content was 100% taken from the bands we were listening to plus Italian horror films like ?The Beyond?.? By the time ?The Day Of Retribution? was released, Nemesis had been playing only a handfull of live gigs. As you probably know, Leif was not only playing bass for Nemesis but also sung lead vocals. A fact he was not happy with at all: ?Nobody in the band liked my singing (including me) so I guess we were looking for a singer from the start of the band in early 1983 right until the end in 1984.? During their short lifespan Nemesis recorded quite a few demos. You can find a selection of nine different demo recordings on Side 3 and 4 of the record you are holding in your hands. Leif Edling counts the number of Nemesis demos: ?I think it was five. Four proper ones plus the ?Tales Of Creation? demo which I recorded with my friend Johnny Reinholm in the transit time between Nemesis and Candlemass. That must have been sometime towards the end of 1984.? The reason Nemesis changed their name into Candlemass was not because new singer Messiah Marcolin joined, it was rather down to legal hassles: ?I think it was in late 1984 when we were forced to change name due to copyright reasons. There was a chain of electronic shops called Nemesis in the South of Sweden and they threatened to sue us if we didn?t change our name.?
The legacy of Nemesis remains strong to the present day. A fact which never fails to baffle Leif Edling, who says: ?Nemesis was never a great band. We were okay some days, crap others. If some people prefer Nemesis before Candlemass, it's up to them. Personally, I think Candlemass is about 20 times better. Nemesis was a half-bad and naive high school band that couldn?t play their instruments properly. But everybody has his own opinion I guess ...?
Matthias Mader
