More like a smalltalk is this interview with NOMINON's Perra, who was the founding member of ALTAR. Great Swedish old school death metal with a more or less shitty sound, but who cares?

Ok, I know you don't have the biggest meaing about that, but I'll do it, haha.

Sure my friend! I will do my best to satisfy you.

Before you joined SUFFER you played in a band called ALTAR. Please introduce the band a little bit, how they were formed and which style you played back than?

ALTAR was previously known as WORTOX or about a year and a half from late 88 to early 90. WORTOX played more thrash metal oriented (TESTAMENT, DARK ANGEL, FORBIDDEN) but with some touches of death metal (DEATH, SEPULTURA, NIHILIST/ENTOMBED, SLAYER, GROTESQUE etc. The members as long as I played with ALTAR was Jimmy Lundmark Guitar, Perra Karlsson Drums, Äinar Carlsson Bass and vox, Dian Johansson - Guitar. The whole idea why we formed a band was that we were all big fans of thrash and death metal. That was during 1988 and we were all
going to school together. WORTOX released a demo tape in early 1990 entitled The Unknown, that one was printed in 100 copies or so.

You were kicked out of the band in late summer 1990, cause you joined SUFFER. Wasn't it like four friends playing together?

Yes, we were pretty good friends back then as far as I am concerned. Of course we are friends today as well, like 15 years later, but they were upset when I told them that I had been doing an audition with SUFFER in the autumn of 1990. First when I told them it was actually no problems at all, we decided that I was going to play with both bands on a serious level. But within two hours I was contacted again by bassist/vocalist Äinar, he told me that they had found another drummer and that I was kicked from ALTAR. It was my name, and everything, but it was fully their decision. Not mine! I wanted to stay, but they wanted to try another drummer, and who can blame them? Not me. Anyway, we agreed that they could keep the name and from there, we just went two different directions...

Were you still in the band went the recordings of the first demo took place? Are there some infos about "No Flesh Shall Be Spared", you remember?

No, I was never involved in the rehearsals for the debut demo. All I remember is that I was hanging out with my buddy Jocke Göthberg (back then a member of MARDUK, nowadays in DIMENSION ZERO) in Kumla and we meet up with Jimmy and we told him about the studio Gorysound, owned by a certain Dan Swanö. He later called the guy and suddenly they had recorded their debut demo with him. No Flesh Shall Be Spared is a superb demo recording and is by far the best that ALTAR ever did, sadly. That demo was later re-released by the
USA label The Wild Rags Records. Its a brilliant demo, get hold of it through tapetrading or whatever if get the chance. Thats all I can say!

After you left the band there were only a rehearsaltape and the Split CD with the Finnish band CARTILAGE. Were you still in contact with the guys at that time or did they stopped your friendship?

Sure, it was a bit of bad blood between us the following years following the split up, but we were just young, dumb and stupid. Which showed a few years later in 1995 when I, Jimmy and Loppan from ALTAR / FALLEN ANGEL formed a new band in the vein of MALEVOLENT CREATION, IMMORTAL and SLAYER. I can assure you that we had a lot of good music going there, but it was all over before we knew it as we
didn't found any vocalist or bassplayer. Thats lame! The band was called INTERFEAR and it could have been something good, but instead it went all down the drain. FUCK!! ALTAR record a studio demo during 1994, with the following line-up: Mieszko (also of NASUM) Vox, Äinar Bass, Jimmy Guitar, Loppan (also of FALLEN ANGEL) Guitar and Frille Drums. That recording was a bit more AT THE GATES influenced one can say without sounding stupid. Its OK, but nothing special really, their debut demo is magnificent! The split recording that was released together with CARTILAGE was OK musicwise, but the production was the worst that Dan Swanö did in the Unisound studio. He even said so himself, so you better believe it.

Ok, I think that's it for ALTAR. Hope you are not too frustrated about these questions, haha?

No way, its just funny to talk about the old days. I hope you got a bit more information about SUFFER and ALTAR and especially about me, in general. All the best to you! Keep in touch! /Perra


Interview: Leif (2004)

more infos about ALTAR (SWE)