Interview with Ruthless from Charon’s Blade 2004

By Bradley Smith

With you guys being such a new band can you please give some of your history to the readers?

- Sure, Chainbreaker and I started a few years ago a band that was called Profane and we mostly played covers but after about a year or two we gave it up. Profane became two bands, one with Chainbreaker and one with me. Chainbreaker’s band recorded a demo which can be heard on our homepage. I’ve met our new drummer for the first time just months ago during a party, we drank beer and talked about metal and he told me that he liked 80’s metal and that he was a drummer, so I decided more or less on the spot that he was the right man for this project. A few weeks later he tried out for us and we decided to recruit him instantly, he has been in a local black metal band called Sangre, so we are happy to get an experienced drummer. The idea itself for Charon’s Blade has always been in the back of my head since I heard real heavy metal for the first time but it wasn’t until recently it was fulfilled. We was originally named Achilles Heel but we decided to go for a name change in the late 2004 for several reasons.

When will your first demo be released?  I see it is supposed to be a split with Helvetets Port. What is their style like? 

- The date for the release ain’t decided yet. We’re still working hard on it and there is no timepress from Final Punishment on us which is great, otherwise I don’t think we should even try to release a demo if we can’t get the time to do it properly. But I would guess that in the summer of 2005 it will be finished.
About Helvetets Port, they are amazing. Real heavy metal and absolutely worth checking out (http://listen.to/helvetetsport) for those who are into the typical NWOBHM sound. It’s really great to do a split with such a respectable band. If I could have picked any new band in the world to do a split with I would chose Helvetets Port, so I’m totally satisfied with that. Right now it ain’t decided wheter it will be a cassette or an 7” single. We’re still negotiating the deal.
 

How did you get in contact with Final Punishment and what possessed them about you in order to want to release your demo?

- San Mujanovic contacted me over the internet after he surfed in on our official website. San has an eye for real metal, just look at the other stuff they have released, fantastic demos. I have a few of those demos at home so when he asked me to release our demo it didn’t take us many seconds to say yes. And I think the affection was both ways as he contacted me personally after he heard rumours about us.

Speaking of your website, Do you maintain it yourself?  It seems to me one of the best that I have seen in awhile for a band.  It will be really cool when you get your Charon’s Blade material up on it.

- Yes, I’m quite familiar with webdesign so I made it myself. I’ve tried to make it so “eighties” as possible and I think it worked out well.

Charon’s Blade is an interesting choice for a band name.  Where did that come from?  And what happened to calling yourself Ruthless? 

- Originally we went under the name Achilles Heel, but we decided to change it because the heel was Achilles weakness and the band name was too confusing. It didn’t explain our sound that well as our new name does. Charon is also taken from the Greek mythology, he was a man that escorted the souls of the dead across the river Styx to the underworld of Hades. We added Blade to because ‘Blade’ is a stereotypical metal name.
Ruthless comes from my last name which is Ruuth so I changed it a bit and made it nasty. haha
 

Sounds like you guys are influenced by the eighties metal but with a slightly different twist than a lot of the other neo-thrash bands popping up these days.  Why did you choose to use those falsetto vocals?

- For one reason, I love falsetto vocals!, in the old days a few thrash/speed bands used falsetto but today it’s rare for some reason. I’m a huge fan of Agent Steel, Raven, Forbidden, Anthrax, Wyzard, Militia, Mercyful Fate and lots of other falsetto bands.

Yes, it seems falsetto vocals are reserved for those power metal bands.  What do you think of Power metal?  I can assume it is not a good impression.  Also what do you think of Doom bands like Confessor who use Falsetto vocals.

- It depends what you mean by Power Metal, as long as it’s early eighties stuff with falsetto vocals it can’t go wrong as long as it’s heavy. I have to point out that I’m not into that new european melodic shit though. I’m not familiar with Confessor’s sound but I like doom metal bands as Witchfinder General, Candlemass, Black Hole (Ita) and Trouble.
 

Without much recorded material to judge from we have to rely on your interpretations of your own music.  What are some of your influences and what bands do you think you are most similar to?

- Well, the interest in Charon’s Blade has been surprisingly big if I compare to my earlier bands and I can understand why. Now we are better musicians and our style has changed towards what I want to play. I’ve decided that I’m done with playing shit metal, I rather not play than doing something I can’t be proud of which is slightly different from my first years as a musician. My influences are mainly 80’s thrash metal and early 80’s heavy metal. To name a few favourites I would say Mercyful Fate, Overkill (US), Coroner, Sodom, Witchfinder General, Exciter, Gotham City, Heavy Load & Celtic Frost. The band that are most similar to us is hard to decide, perhaps Venom or early Slayer, but our vocals are slightly different.We have strong similarities to most of the bands that I’ve mentioned earlier.
 

Being from Sweden one would've expected you guys to either play black metal or some sort of In Flames inspired melodic metal.  Why did you choose to go a different path?  What do you think of your country mates?

- I never chosed what path to walk, It has always been natural for me to play this way, because I don’t play disco either so why would I play anything that isn’t even real heavy metal? I really hate those modern Swedish metal bands so much you can’t imagine.  They don’t deserve to be called metal and we have absolutely nothing to do with those bands at all. Sure I can listen to Nifelheim but I refuse to listen to trendy keyboard metal from Gothenburg.

I noticed you have irreligious icons such as Inverted Crosses on your website.  How much of an anti-religious person are you?  What do you think of religion in general?
 

- I couldn’t care less,  Religions are totally lame. Here in Sweden there aren’t so many christians amongst the youth so these religions don’t affect me at all.

All this new wave of thrash is seeming to make an impact on the underground.  Why do you think that thrash is making such a big comeback?  Are there any bands in this new wave of thrash that you like?

- It’s kind of strange, when I first got into thrash metal nobody cared a shit about it. But in 2000 or so the interest grew. Even if some of them are poser material so are most of the people that I talk to really into it today. I think that internet has done a lot for alternative styles. Thrash is so good that it spreads more widely on the internet than on other media. And yes I have to admit that I like a few newcomers as: Toxic Holocaust, Bywar, Gama Bomb, Sauron & Ballistic.

In your pictures on your website you guys have the bullet belts and other standards for the early wave of evil thrash bands.  What role do you think image plays in your band?  How important is it to portray the right kind of attitude to mesh with the music you play?

- If I’ll be honest I would say that image and production is more important than the songwriting itself. Because I would rather listen to an obscure 80’s metal act that looks evil and with cool songtitles than a musically great band that are looks boring and sing songs about how sad they are after their girlfriends left ‘em. It’s just pathetic. We will never ever record a ballad and if we ever does that please tell us to quit the band! Haha. I still have to point out that the songwriting is of course very important and we’ll do our best to produce great metal songs.

So you feel that image plays a larger role than that of the actual music because without it the whole mood is lost?  I feel there has to a correct balance between the two.  But your take on this issue is interesting and I would like to hear more about what you think.  

- Great bands has to have all ingredients, what would Mercyful Fate be without King Diamonds image?, a whole lot less!
A band without image or with a dorky image destroys the general impression, like Twisted Sister, They lived only on their image cause they where crappy musicians but that’s another story.
When it comes to production some bands needs a certain sound to work, like many of the harder bands of the early eighties, they wouldn’t sound hard at all if it wasn’t for a raw production. I think that all great albums in the world has these characteristics: mystic and evil layout, a good production that brings out the best in the band, an occult image, typical 80’s metal lyrics and of course a bunch of great songs. All these things are important. It’s stupid to leave out parts of it if you’re heading for that type of music that we play.
 

I think it is imperative that a person's philosophy speak somewhat through their art.  What are some of your beliefs and how do they affect your artistic expressions?

- I’m not sure if you can call this a belief but we want to recreate the old metal spirit and I’m sure that most people that listens to us do it for that reason. We don’t want to be another Swedish black/death metal band. We are heading for the past.
 

You say that metal should be true to its roots.  What exactly do you mean by this statement?  And how would you go about fixing this problem? 

- First of all we need to destroy rap and this dorky Pantera-influenced aggro metal (Sorry Dimebag) that is so popular today, then we can burn the keyboards and all those new hollywood dragon metal genres that is “invented” daily. And after that we can put on some tight jeans and our leatherjackets and start to play thrash again the way it was intended to be.
 

There are several obscure Swedish bands that you claim as influences like Heavy Load and Gotham City.  Can you tell us a little more about them?  How do you feel about the older Swedish scene and its influence on the rest of the world of extreme music?

- Aah, finally! They play heavy metal like the most bands did back in 82-84. Gotham City is perhaps the best metal band in the world. Sounds kind of like Manilla Road at times, better than Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and those bands for sure! And Swedish metal of the eighties are a bit misunderstood because it was bands like Europe, 220 Volt and Bathory that got most of the attention when it should have been Gotham City, Heavy Load & Mindless Sinner instead. We hope that we can bring back metal in that direction again.

I have heard you don't like any modern bands at all.  Is this true?  Why is this and what could possibly be done that would help change your mind?  You don't even respect bands that keep an Old school attitude like Darkthrone?

- I can like new bands as long as it’s retro styled metal, if that’s modern I don’t give a fuck. But I have to point out that I prefer early 80’s metal because when I see a cool band name and their demo from 1983 you know what it’s all about, when it says 2004 on it I usually don’t even give it a chance cause most of it is modern. About the trend of that most bands follow today when they try to change metal and finding new styles has not worked out well. There are endless examples of that, like Celtic Frost goes glam, Anthrax bringing in rap, Metallica becomes a ultra modern,  Megadeth wimping out. For an example; why would you take a shit on a Pizza just to change it? It’s perfect as it was. The same way with metal, you can’t top 80’s metal but you can try to avoid to take a shit on it.
 

Do you have any last bits of advice or philosophy or verbal destruction for all of the Charon’s Blade neophytes?

Visit our homepage at: http://listen.to/charonsblade
Charon’s Blade will strike down upon the unbelievers!