Hailing from Sweden, heavier than Sabaton, more dark and evil than ABBA… Nekrokraft’s “Doc” sits our Band of the Day test…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Hello! Simple things first of course, we are from Linköping, Sweden. Ever heard about The Linköping Bloodbath? Five noblemen executed by beheading on the Linköping market square on 20 March 1600, some death metal reading for you right there. Linköping has some interesting historical events!
How did you meet?
Well, through mutual friends, sharing same interests, influences and visions. It’s a big world, yet sometimes so small. And you know, so much beers to share, and we all know what happens when you treat yourself a few to many, great ideas follow.
How long have you been playing as a band?
Me (Doc) and Angst formed the band back in 2012 together with Blaster. Some minor lineup changes have taken place throughout the years but now the lineup has been intact for some time.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
I remember me, Angst & Blaster having some refreshments down at the rehearsal space, discussing death, folklore and occultism. This was around the time when we had recorded the first demo songs. As we started to get quite refreshed I remember us talking about what to name this creation of ours. Already discussing themes like death and occultism, the three of us sharing the same vision that this project is going to be an extreme metal one, we talked about using the swedish word for Necro, which simply is Nekro, and refer to things related to death. But that word, by itself did not create what we wanted, so we put the word “kraft” together with Nekro, “kraft” in swedish can be described as force, power, energy, might and maybe even spirit in english. These two words forming the name Nekrokraft, which can translate to the power, strength or might of death, since death is powerful in so many ways! We leave some for the listener to interpret.
What are your influences?
Nekrokraft consists of five creative humans, each person has their own influences of course, but we also share influences that create what Nekrokraft is about, to name a few of those its death, occultism, different types of folklore, old stories and ancient religious happenings. Musically we are all influenced by old school metal & rock, bands like Slayer, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Bathory, Dissection, Immortal and Kreator etc.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
When we describe our music we always end up talking about how we use elements from black, thrash and death metal to create what Nekrokraft is about. By those elements we mean aggression and power from death metal, the raw sordid speed from thrash metal, and the black metal emphasis on atmosphere. We also incorporate orchestral / synth arrangements in some songs to make the soundscape a bit wider and more interesting, the infusion of folk music in the lead-guitar work together with the other elements also creates an certain atmosphere. I would say that the use of all these elements makes our sound quite unique.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Yes, witchcraft, satanism, occultism, folklore, old stories and ancient religious happenings of different kinds, as mentioned before.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We always enter the stage with raging energy and intensity, its powerful, and raw. Our live show has always been about pure energy, thrashing, headbanging and we exchange this energy with the audience.
Hm, that’s a good question actually, I don’t think we kept an accurate count throughout the years but it’s starting to become a decent amount, and there is more to come, so don’t miss out!
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
I remember one late night in Visby, on the island of Gotland. We found ourselves playing this strange place, I actually think it was meant to be more of a nightclub kind of thing going on there, not an extreme metal show kind of place. We entered the stage, doing our thing, after a couple of songs our bassist around this time, named Monger, totally lost it after having himself a couple of drinks too many. Monger ravaged off stage, down into the crowd! He had his mouth filled up with blood, people who happened to be at the club didn’t really know what was going on, and a few seconds later, Monger is running around filling up peoples glasses with the blood he has in his mouth and telling people to fuck off.
Can’t really remember all the details, but I remember there wasn’t really a crowd left to play in front after that small event, and the owner of the nightclub was not impressed, but this particular happening amongst others that Visby journey stick in one’s mind, great journey to Visby, Gotland!
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Moloch our drummer uses a PDP-kit, Sabian & Zildjian high-end cymbals. Pearl pedals and drumsticks from Vic Firth. Doc & Iron mainly uses Peavey amplifiers & Ibanez guitars. Ghol uses Yamaha for his basses. Other than that we use Shure and Sennheiser systems for microphones, wireless etc.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We are releasing our new album Servants very soon, it will be released the 4th of may through The Sign Records. So right now we are promoting the album and rehearsing for a releasefest that will be held here in Linköping the 12th of may.
What are your plans for 2018?
Of course, as mentioned in the previous question, releasing our new album Servants that we have been working on for a very long time. We are also looking forward to play the Sweden Rock Festival this summer, it’s inspiring to play the same festival as many of the bands we grew up listening to. In the autumn of 2018 there will be two shorter tours in Europe, to support the new album Servants.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
That’s a tough question, there is a lot of great bands still going strong out there. I think we would like to support a band like Behemoth or Abbath. For the band opening for us, we would probably go for a band named The Generations Army, a bunch of young talented guys from the south of Sweden, check them out, great guys!
From previous Band of the Day We’re No Gentlemen: What is the worst food you ever ate while on the road to a gig?
I don’t think we have eaten anything really bad yet. When travelling to and from gigs we often end up in some kind of fast food restaurant, to cure the hangovers, especially to cure our bassist Ghol’s hangover.
But I guess, the worst food is yet to come then.
From another BotD, Crypitus: How do you deal with broken strings/ sticks/ mics during shows? And how do you deal with your bandmates’ broken strings and sticks during a show?
This should not be said, I will probably curse, hex and jinx us now, but we haven’t had any major issues with broken strings, sticks or mics during our shows. But if it happens it’s not a big deal, we carry spare guitars, sticks and mics with us, so we can change gear in between or during the songs if it’s necessary.
And from Harakiri For The Sky: If you had to smuggle drugs onto an airplane. How would you do it?
I thought of this for a while and didn’t really come up with a good answer, but maybe you can smuggle drugs inside an instrument, not inside the case but actually inside the instrument, or maybe inside a computer or some other device, it’s probably already been done with questionable results. Since there would be five extreme metal musicians with long hair and leather jackets standing in line to the x-ray device, we are probably fucked no matter how good we hid those drugs!
Header photo by Ann-Sofie Clausen
