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As his previous band SUNDOWN had stood under an unlucky star, Matze Lodmalm is back und the old banner. But halt! Not exactly the same banner, because the CEMETARY has a 1213 now. Musically "The Beast Divine" presents him and his colleagues more varied than ever, presenting us with something like a Best Of of his former albums, but without repeating himself at all. So what would be more logic than to get in touch with the Swede (I really should learn Swedish by now... - Alex) to ask him about the whys and ifs and everything. With "The Beast Divine" you have taken one step back into the CEMETARY-direction, but still sounding different. How did it come that you returned to the crunching guitars again? Well, they don't really have disappeared, but haven't been so much in the foreground with SUNDOWN. People really shouldn't mix up CEMETARY and SUNDOWN, because it would be a big mistake. While we're at that, do SUNDOWN still exist? No, we're not doing that anymore. 
Were you not satisfied with the SUNDOWN-sound anymore? It was not because of not liking the sound, it was more a business decision, so to say. It wasn't because of the finances, but rather not getting along with Century Media about how things should develop, how they should be handled. So we just bit the sour apple and left SUNDOWN behind. So is there any bad blood between you and Century Media? Well, a little, I guess. There should not be exactly bad blood, but rather 'sour grapes'. We're not that enthusiastic about it all right now, the way it should be (laughs). OK, let's keep it there and return to the music again. I honestly don't know. I just write the music that comes to my mind, not paying heed to who might like it or not. We did this album just for ourselves, because we wanted to hear it (laughs). We didn't have any expectations at all, for us it's just another CEMETARY-album. Do you then already know, which direction CEMETARY 1213 will take in the future? Yeah, we're already recording new stuff right now, so we're very focussed on how it should be. So how will it sound *nudge, nudge*? It will be a lot scarier than "The Beast Divine". It will be more or less like this one, but more detailed, less crunchy. Which bands and artists influence your music now? Given the sound of your bands, those seem to have changed a lot over the years... At the moment, I'm more influenced by movies. See, we took away almost the whole Gothic scenery and we changed it for a science-fiction-horror-thing. So we were really influenced by movies like "Bladerunner" or "Hellraiser", "Alien", "Terminator" and "Robocop" and that whole scene. To move to the side that apparently has faced a bigger change in influence, let's go to the lyrics, which are some sort of concept-album again, right? Yes. As we really wanted to make this album a new thing, it deals with the biggest disappointment the whole humanity could possibly experience together. It's like, what if mankind has only been an experiment by God that went way out of hand. So God in fact is "The Beast Divine"... Yes, exactly, and it also goes hand in hand with the new code we have, "1213", which is like an analogy in a new kind of breed of humanity, who would incinerate all what was left of humanity after the big war and start new again. Ah yes. Really seems to have watched many, many movies... 
Yes, you have the beast in the foreground and the divine Madonna in the background. It's also the same bird that we had on those two covers as well. So it symbolises the title. Does it then also have a connection to those two albums? 
Sure, it's the same birdie, but also conceptually. With "Sundown" the world as we know it more or less ended, told the last few minutes on earth and on "Last Confessions" you have tracks like "1213 - Trancegalactica", which is like the carrier-spaceship bringing this new breed to earth. 
Will we be able to see you on tour with CEMETARY 1213? We're really thinking about it. A whole mass of people wants to see us, believe it or not. But it will all depend on how the people will react to the new album. Still we're looking into doing a few dates in Germany after summertime-craziness. Way back then, you have had to rename your band to SUNDOWN, to avoid conflicts with Black Mark Records... Not really. What? At least that was what you could read everywhere. Yes, a lot of stuff has been written about SUNDOWN, which were nothing but outright lies. SUNDOWN was a completely new band and had no connections to CEMETARY, was no side-project of CEMETARY, as our label had spun the story. That is, why people got so confused about it all. And I am really angry about it, because it's all label-bullshit. To make up things to sell albums. What had been the overall reaction to the SUNDOWN-records? It's been very confusing, because when we put out the first one, the Gothic-people thought that it would sound like CEMETARY, but of course, if it would sound like CEMETARY, then I would do a CEMETARY-record, so it took me about two years to explain this to the people, then we did "Glimmer", which was very different, and it was a real disaster marketing-wise. People thought that it would be a really Gothic record and then asked, why it wasn't that, so I had to explain that for another year, so I was in a kind of no-way situation with SUNDOWN. How would you describe CEMETARY 1213 to somebody, who never has heard anything of you yet? Oh, that's a really hard one. It's very dark, or rather very cold, because we conjure up images of something sinister, something cold and scary, just like somebody put you into a freezer for two days, then take you out and beat the hell out of you. That's kind of what we are... And, as I said before, we also are influenced by those movies with dark and cold atmospheres, but other than that I really couldn't give you any real description of us. Chris Silver is the only 'survivor' of the old CEMETARY-line-up. Do you still have contacts with former CEMETARY-members? I see some of them, but none of them plays any music anymore, though. The only one is Anders (Iwers), who is in TIAMAT. And Johnny Hagel (formerly of TIAMAT) from the first SUNDOWN-album, do you know, what he is doing? Yes, I've just spoken to him not long ago. He has a new band called LITHIUM, which is very much into Electronic and EBM, a bit SKINNY PUPPY, a bit of NINE INCH NAILS-type-of-thing. CEMETARY always had at least looked like a solo-project of yours. How important were the other members for the band? With the new CEMETARY they're more important than ever, as Manne actually sings quite a lot on the album, so he's really important for the sound and he's important for me, too, because he is my best friend. Over the years the sound of your bands has changed a lot. You started out with Melodic Death Metal, then Gothic Metal, Gothic Rock with New Wave-influences with CEMETARY, then electronic and Industrial-influences with SUNDOWN and now sound somehow different again. How would you describe the evolution of your sound? I'd say that it's mainly, because I grew up doing the music. I got signed with Black Mark, when I was 17 years old and we were just exploring new things, trying new stuff, growing as a person, growing as a musician, producer, engineer and God knows, where it will end (laughs). Could you please give me a few words on the CEMETARY/SUNDOWN/CEMETARY 1213-albums so far, from how you view them now? 
Of course. At first we have "An Evil Shade Of Grey". I think that it's really cool. I wouldn't have been that positive a few years ago, but it has some very good lyrics on it, maybe the best I have ever done. I've been only 17 years old then and there also is some really awful playing on it, but with nice melodies. And how have been the reactions for it so far? It's been very good, because it seems that people really were waiting for it and they are really happy about the way that it sounds, because they were not expecting this, but rather something more Gothic sounding. But I have still have one point of criticism that is like a red line throughout your career: The albums just have a playing time of around 40 minutes, some a little more, some quite considerably less and also "The Beast Divine" only passed that mark by the hidden track. Don't you think that in times of high and still rising CD-prices the fans might expect some more music for their money? I totally understand that, but I never have been a fan of long albums. If I had a say, then I would sell all albums cheaper, because the prices are just too high, but that's not my area... I like albums that fit from the first song to the last song, like in a flow. I hate it, when I buy an album and I have to flip tracks. OK, so let's hope the best :) Hm, most likely, what the whole idea behind the music is, where it is coming from, what it is built upon. What makes me write this kind of music. And what would be the answer? How many hours of tape do you have left (laughs)? No, to make it short, it's how you grew up, the person you have become. In my case I've always been the complete alien, I always have been the guy, who doesn't fit in, to this very moment. Phew, I really hope that a few of Mathias' statements about his record-label won't spell trouble... But it also shows that quite a few things that the fans get to read and hear are not quite the same as they really had happened... Discography:1993: Godless Beauty (Cemetary; CD, Black Mark) 1994: Black Vanity (Cemetary; CD, Black Mark) 1996: Sundown (Cemetary; CD, Black Mark) 1997: Last Confessions (Cemetary; CD, Black Mark) 1998: Sweetest Tragedies (Cemetary; Best Of-CD, Black Mark) 1998: Design 19 (Sundown; CD, Century Media) 1998: Design 19 (Sundown; DigiPak with Bonus, Century Media) 1999: Halo (Sundown; MCD, Century Media) 1999: Glimmer (Sundown; CD, Century Media) 2000: The Beast Divine (Cemetary 1213; CD, Century Media)
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"Black Vanity" in fact is my favourite, because very personal. I went through hell while doing this album, my whole life was in pieces and when I did that album I realised one hundred per cent that I have to do this all by myself, in full control. It was a really successful album and also was great fun.
And "The Beast Divine" probably is the second-best album, because it's the beginning of a new era. I am really satisfied with it, because everything that CEMETARY ever was about is on this album. Everything what we have had in mind, when we started to work on this album, has been accomplished. We took the old stuff and used it to build something new, not just to re-build the old stuff. That was important to us.
