by Niklas Göransson

With a new generation taking shape, the label stood between competing flames. Paul looked to In Aeternum to stoke the cold fire of Swedish darkness, even as Necropolis found itself pulled toward the deathgrind embers spreading across the Bay Area.

 

PAUL TYPHON: By the early 2000s, Sweden needed a new force to take the reins of their scene. WAR clearly weren’t that band, and DISSECTION was in stasis. The way I saw it, IN AETERNUM should’ve been crowned the next true representation of Swedish underground metal.

A few years earlier, Paul had set out to find a melodic band with the cold, sinister edge of DISSECTION and SACRAMENTUM – but without any trace of the upbeat Gothenburg death metal sound. After discovering IN AETERNUM and corresponding with guitarist and vocalist David ‘Impious’ Larsson, Necropolis funded a session at Studio Fredman.

PAUL: These guys weren’t posers; no corpse paint or any kind of theatrics. Same vibe as USURPER and SADISTIC INTENT – full-on metal lunatics. I remain adamant that IN AETERNUM, at least on those first two albums, stand among the finest Swedish black/death bands.

Following the 1999 debut, “Forever Blasphemy”, IN AETERNUM became the first Swedish Necropolis act to take their album on the road, joining IMMORTAL for the At the Heart of Winter Tour. Touted in contemporary promo material as ‘masters of Metal of Death’, the band returned the next year with “The Pestilent Plague”.

PAUL: IN AETERNUM will always hold real importance; it’s one of the signings I’m most proud of. But like DAWN, they’re another example of the Necropolis curse – incredible bands that, for whatever reason, never got the deserved recognition. Their second album didn’t land quite as well as I’d hoped.

“The Pestilent Plague” was recorded at Abyss – did you prefer this sound over the Fredman production?

PAUL: No. Killer material – but in hindsight, it suffers a bit from that sterile, lifeless sound typical of millennium-era Abyss productions. I’d say the debut felt more organic, which is probably why I went on to reissue IN AETERNUM’s demos, just like I did with USURPER and THE BLACK.

 

At the time, Paul was assembling an IN AETERNUM compilation, “Past and Present Sins” – another entry in a long line of demo reissues going back to 1996, when Necropolis released CD editions of THE BLACK’s “Black Blood” and EINHERJER’s “Aurora Borealis”.

In March 2000, Necropolis reissued USURPER’s 1994 demo “Visions from the Gods” with bonus tracks. That same month, the band entered Nomad Studios in Carrollton, Texas, to record “Necronemesis” – the follow-up to their second full-length, “Usurper II: Skeletal Season”.

PAUL: Even the band said “…Skeletal Season” didn’t come out the way they wanted; that admission alone shows why musicians need managers and proper direction. Had I been there in the studio, I’d have said, ‘Guys, this is shit. You need to come back with something more powerful.’

“…Skeletal Season” was recorded at the same local studio as “Visions from the Gods”, their debut album “Diabolosis…”, and the “Threshold of the Usurper” mini-CD. Leading up to “Necronemesis”, USURPER decided to try something different.

In an interview with Voices from the Darkside, Rick Scythe recalled Necropolis suggesting Morrisound – but USURPER wanted a less conventional sound and opted for Nomad Studios, where MERCYFUL FATE had tracked “9”.

By chance, King Diamond was still finishing his “House of God” album when the band arrived from Chicago. With the schedules overlapping, the studio owner proposed a trade: if USURPER could push their session back a few days to give King more time, he’d record guest vocals for them.

 

PAUL: Man, hearing that King Diamond would be singing on the USURPER album… everyone at the Necropolis office was fired up. But once again, you put a band in a studio – and who knows what’ll happen? At least the production came out far stronger this time around.

Is this your diplomatic way of saying that “Necronemesis” left you somewhat underwhelmed?

PAUL: Well, put yourself in my position – you’ve spent well over $10,000 on a record, hyped up your distributors, called music journalists and got them excited, reached out to college radio… and then you get this. It’s pedestrian at best. Listen to the opening track: you want to start with a banger, but that one just slows everything down.

In October 2000, seven months after the Nomad session, Necropolis released USURPER’s “Necronemesis”.

PAUL: Let’s just say fans weren’t exactly rushing out to buy the new USURPER. I couldn’t make sense of it. “Threshold…” is the greatest fucking thing ever – but no one on this planet brings up “Necronemesis” when they talk about Necropolis, yet it cost ten times more than “The Priest of Satan” (THE BLACK).

Were the band members happy with it?

PAUL: Who knows? A band might think, in whatever reality they’re living in, that it’s an amazing album – everything went right, great studio experience, and so on. But I had the ear for it and understood our audience. I heard customers calling every day, spoke to record shops; I knew everyone. Musicians can often be far removed from the pulse of the market.

Is this what you’re referring to when you say musicians need management?

PAUL: Yes. Obviously, bands trying to promote themselves must sound better, cooler, and sharper than everyone else – so don’t hand me something painfully average. Labels should control these things because artists can’t.

 

To be fair, USURPER had a few objections of their own. In interviews with both Voices from the Darkside and MetalBite, the band claimed that “Necronemesis” was nearly impossible to find in US stores.

PAUL: Nonsense. We shipped the records to our US distributor, Big Daddy, expecting decent sales because of all the promotion. What these bands failed to grasp was that when no one bought their albums, the stores would just return them to make room for titles people actually wanted. Brutal – but as a label, you take it on the chin.

They also said “Necronemesis” had ‘less magazine exposure than our 1994 demo’ – which doesn’t reflect well on your New York PR office.

PAUL: Bollocks. I can’t make the magazines like your record; I didn’t sneak a $100 bill into every WITCHERY promo, did I? No. That’s a limp excuse. Bring me something factual, and we can actually talk; if not, then there’s nothing to discuss.

Another complaint was that Necropolis – or ‘Relapse Jr’ – used to be a cult metal label, but now ‘if you don’t have a toilet with gore dripping on the cover, you don’t get pushed’.

PAUL: Oh, this is brilliant. Once again – I suggest you listen to “Diabolosis…” and “Threshold…”, then the two that followed. I challenge your readers to play them front to back and tell me what they hear. Promotion wasn’t the issue here.

Was that ‘Relapse Jr’ remark a dig at your Deathvomit ventures?

PAUL: I guess. By then, I’d finally started catching up to what Relapse had figured out a decade earlier: the importance of your local scene. For instance, John Cobbett from HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE promoted the Tuesday metal nights at the Covered Wagon Saloon in San Francisco, and IMPALED were playing there regularly, slowly drawing a crowd.

Deathvomit Records was headed by Necropolis employees Matt Harvey and Jason Balsells. In February 2000, as its inaugural title, the imprint released the self-titled debut of Balsells’ own DEADBODIESEVERYWHERE – a grindcore band from Redwood City with strong ties to the local crust-punk scene.

Next came IMPALED’s “The Dead Shall Dead Remain”, featuring a blood-and-entrails-coated toilet on the cover. In November 2000, the Oakland-based deathgrind act toured the US supporting NILE and INCANTATION.

PAUL: Establishing ourselves in the Bay Area had become really important to me, and you can’t do that unless the bands are willing to do whatever it takes. The toilets-on-the-cover acts got more attention because those guys weren’t afraid to jump in a van, tour with anyone, crash wherever, and even squat if need be.

I thought you said USURPER were always keen to tour.

PAUL: Sure, but I can’t imagine those guys showing up at some bedroom house party to play for ten or twenty people. IMPALED, EXHUMED, and bands in that circle would hit whatever squatty venue invited them. They were completely locked into the local circuit and could easily cross over into crust, grind, and punk bills.

 

Were there no metal shows in the Bay Area?

PAUL: Thrash had long since faded, and the grunge explosion left death metal in a strange place. Meanwhile, bands like VULGAR PIGEONS made crust and grindcore exciting again. I thought, ‘Holy shit, these guys are playing for almost nobody and still giving everything, and they’re actually good.’ The whole idea behind Deathvomit came from that energy.

Deathvomit signed San Francisco grindcore act VULGAR PIGEONS in 2000 – their debut album, “Summary Execution”, followed the next year.

PAUL: So, perhaps that’s why USURPER looked around thinking, ‘What happened to Necropolis?’ We only had so many dollars to spread around, and something new was clearly bubbling up. The scene I’d once stepped away from to focus on black metal suddenly felt more authentic.

Another notable claim made in two separate interviews was that certain Necropolis staff hated USURPER and were unsupportive of them.

PAUL: As the label grew, I was pulled in many different directions and had to hand off responsibility for dealing with certain bands. But in the context of calling the office and not getting as much attention – I’ll take the heat for poor communication, but USURPER simply weren’t delivering what the fans wanted.

Curiously, IMPALED’s Sean McGrath recalled similar treatment – in a BraveWords interview, he mentioned issues with a ‘senior member of the staff’ at Necropolis.

PAUL: <laughs> Matt Harvey had EXHUMED, and I suppose IMPALED might’ve felt like a threat. I’m not saying they sounded the same, but both drew heavily from CARCASS; IMPALED went full-on “Necroticism”. As did EXHUMED initially, but “Slaughtercult” – whatever number that is in their discography – is drenched in German thrash.

Relapse Records released EXHUMED’s second album, “Slaughtercult”, in August 2000.

PAUL: But yeah, getting back to “Necronemesis” – once again, I spent way too much money on that record. To their credit, USURPER did play live. If I offered them something like the CRADLE OF FILTH tour, they’d always accept, which was a good thing.

In November 2000, USURPER once again teamed up with CRADLE OF FILTH – this time for an extensive European run alongside CHRISTIAN DEATH.

That same month, a number of Necropolis and Deathvomit-associated acts – IMPALED, SADISTIC INTENT, WITCHERY, EXHUMED, and IN AETERNUM – appeared at California’s November to Dismember, organised by Milwaukee Metalfest founder Jack Koshick.