| ...after Mike came back from his auditioning with Napalm Death in the U.K. packed with incredible demos and experiences, he got me convinced (or maybe I convinced myself..) that THIS was the new shit! Hehe.. Hearing new bands like BoltThrower, Napalm Death, Carcass, E.N.T., Morbid Angel, Incubus, Xecutioner, Sadus etc etc etc made me literally shit my crust pants and the fact was indeed a fact: Carnage was born (at first Global Carnage). Johnny was there, Mike was there – the 2 “axe men”, a drummer was recruited: Jesper Larsson (I have no idea how we found him really) and myself on bass and vocals (the time had come to “growl” though..) ... we rehearsed intensely for a few months, then went off to record our first demo, “The day man lost” in late 88/early 89. 4 tracks were supposed to be eternalized, yet we had to skip one of them due to not getting it properly tight and all that (“Carnage bloody carnage”). However, we got 3 songs and released a demo. It had a duration of 4.38 minutes (!!) and a b/w xerox cover, yes indeed! Totally decadent!! It was to become a very popular item amongst the tape traders and even journalists out there praised it and labelled us things like "the swedish Carcass" or what ever. |
| Our confidence grew. Time to record demo # 2. We recruited drummer Fred Estby (Colonel Estby, haha) and also David Blomqvist (member of Dismember) on guitar. The line up should have looked sthg like this: Fred-drums, Mike-guitar, David-guitar, Johnny-bass and me on vocals. As we entered the studio again for our second demo, “Infestation of Evil”, there was a wish for me to sing in a more “non-grunting” way, yeah haha.. that was a funny U-turn indeed. I recall recording/dubbing the vocals and feeling so totally fucked up. This was not 'me'. I already had my idea of how to handle and even develop the vocals. And in my opinion (and probably many others too, I guess) it sounded totally crap. It really didn't have to do with me not doing my best, apart from the usual attitude problem so common in that age. The time for this simply wasn't right. And I was sooo dissatisfied with it. |
| Actually, the whole thing was turned upside down and inside out. Carnage had become something... else!? It wasn’t fun anymore, that’s for sure. We did play live though, 2 times... 1 time in Stockholm (also released as a 7” ep thru' mexican underground label Distorted Harmony Records) and secondly in Strömstad (a show actually arranged by Jon Nödtveidt, formerly Dissection) back in early 1990. |
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At this time I knew I was already out of the band, still I took stage and it felt like shit. Things have become too serious - too soon. Ambition killed the passion. Carnage live in Stockholm 1989 part 1
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