Swedish punk thrasher duo Germ Bomb is releasing their 3rd full length this spring, titeled ‘Under a Fading Sun’. In that regard we had a little chat with Hampus, wanting to know more about the band and their plans for the future.
Germ Bomb! Photo courtesy of the band.
First off, could you tell us a bit about Germ Bomb? I know you are two swedish guys playing thrash, and I’ve heard rumours that you found your band name listening to Dead Kennedys?
Yeah, it’s true we came up with the name while listening to a Dead Kennedys song titled “Kinky sex makes the world go round”. ‘Germ bomb’ is in the lyric somewhere and we thought it sounded cool.
Me (Hampus) and Pierre started Germ Bomb when our former band Hathor split up, we were playing some kind of punkrock at that time and felt we had to change direction. I had just dicovered bands like Toxic Holocaust, Bastardator and Children Of Technology so we started writing songs that was harder and darker than before. We have always listened to all kinds of music. 80’s thrash, punk, 82punk and metal so it came natural for us to create a blend of all that. Germ Bomb was born! Maybe it’s thrash metal, we really dont care as long as it feels right!
We were bored with almost all metal at that time, perfect produced radiometal or melodic shit which we both hated.
It was liberating to listen to all those metalpunk bands and all of a sudden we were part of some kind of metalpunk movement. One thing led to another and we discovered 100 more bands and metal was fun again!
Germ Bomb – Under a Fading Sun
This is your 3rd full length album, and while your cover art in the past has been pretty stereotypical for the thrash genre, the new album seems to be alot darker visually and not so caricatured as the previous ones?
You are right, we wanted something different for this album cover, as you said it’s darker and not so stereotyped as for lot of thrash metal bands. We don’t consider us as a thrash metal band, we don’t want a label but we know people tend to place bands. We are big fans of polish artist Beksinski so we searched the net for artists influenced by him and we found Lenore Ani. She got some instructons, “keep it dark and gloomy” and she nailed it, we think it’s killer!
It’s not only the album cover that has darkened. In my opinion some of the material on ‘Under A Fading Sun’ leans more over to Black’n’roll, sounding heavier and slower. Is this Germ Bomb evolving, or moving away from the thrash genre?
I think you have to evolve and not create the same album over and over, so it came naturally. We are big fans of Midnight and Celtic Frost and we wanted it to sound more dirty and raw. We have been into doom bands a lot recently and I think you can hear that in the music as well.. We also changed studio for this album, it’s recorded in Welfare Sounds Studio (Bombs of Hades, Bombus) with Per Stålberg and Olle Björk behind the knobs. And they created that raw soundscape that we were looking for.
I’m always curious about where artists find their inspiration. Could you tell us something about what and who has inspired you along your way?
Germ Bomb. Photo courtesy of the band.
Everything from movies, books, music or whatever that comes in your way can inspire to a song. We always try to be open for all kinds of music.
Obviously Motörhead has been a big inspiration for us together with Slayer, Celtic Frost and a lot of punk bands like Exploited and GBH.
Nowadays bands like Saint Vitus, Electric Wizard, Einsturzende Neubauten, Of The Wand And Moon or Velvet Underground can inspire us. We have to mention Satyricon as a big influence and especially Frost and his drumming. It’s awesome!
So what is in the future for Germ Bomb? Are you planning any touring after the release of ‘Under a Fading Sun’?
We will soon premiere our first official video “1000 Suns” from the upcoming album. We would like to thank Black Forest Mag for the interview and hopefully we will hit the stage and create some chaos.
See you soon!
You can find more information and updates from the band here:
https://www.facebook.com/germbomb
https://germbomb.bandcamp.com/
