I do think you guys will agree that MEFISTO is, beside MANINNYA BALDE (formed in 1980), or immortal BATHORY, one of the oldest Swedish extreme metal bands.

Coming from theStockholm`s northern suburbAkersberg, MEFISTO was formed in 1984 as TORMENT. Two years later, now as MEFISTO, having released their demo "Megalomania,"the band caught world`s attention.A bit later, in late November, they released their second demo "The Puzzle". These two materials were just unspeakably powerful, full of occult darkness and a high dose of energy. What an explosive bland, indeed!

Their music was strongly influenced by the Teutonic bands: KREATOR/IRON ANGEL/SODOM, as well as grim riffs of BATHORY and guitar relishes of METALLICA. Really impressive! Both demos were, according to the standards from back then, of very good quality. Fromtime perspective, it seems now, the Swedish scene wasn’t, at the time,readyforsuch a band to appear. It wasn’t until many years later that Swedish bands unleasheda realinvasion of brutality

Despite huge potential and undeniable skills of its members, MEFISTO failed to succeed. Perhaps, it was due to internal inconsistencies as for band`s further development. Robban and Sandro wanted to follow the path of MEFISTO presented on their demos – on the other hand, Omar dreamed of more technical musicwhere he could present his guitar skills.

On top of that, Sandro was diagnosed with cancer. Surprisingly, despite the BATHORY success, the Swedish phonographic market was kind of idle and didn’t pay too close attention to what was going on in the contemporary Swedish underground scene. A year after "The Puzzle" was out, MEFISTO ceased to exist. They never, in spite of being active for many years, played live.

After almost 27 years of inactivity, in December 2014, the band resurrected. First, the two demos of MEFISTO have been re-released by VIC Records on CD. Later, "The Megalomania Puzzle" was put out on noble vinyl. In 2016, it was announced MEFISTO is going to release a brand new album. this is the very reason I decided to ask the band about a possible interview and learn some more about MEFISTO`s plans as well as the band`s past. Lads and ladies, Mr. Robban himself:

1. Hello. Before I`ll ask about your forthcoming album, I want you to tell us how you liked your live performance at Black Christmas Fest January 02, 2016. As far as I know, you`ve played only once (at Wings of Metal Fest) since you`ve reformed. In the 80s, you didn’t play live at all. Well, I guess, that’s kind of exciting to play live again, after all these years. I reckon it was rather more difficult to get your music through to listeners, thirty years ago.

It was great. We felt very welcomed and we did a good show if you have in mind we only been rehearshal a cuople of weeks as a band.

2. Well, at this fest – did you play only demo tracks, or maybe some new songs too?

We played all songs from our demos and Void (new)

3. Apart from MEFISTO, there were some other bands playing at the said festival: MARDUK, VENOM, MAYHEM, DESTRUCTION, as well as a Polish band called VADER (they played their first two demos only). It was a purely old school kind of show, and as I have heard there came pretty many people. It gotta`ve been really exciting to play again, after so many years, with such metal music veterans, huh?

It was realy exiting and I was very nervous. My first big show ever. Playing the same stage as destruction and Venom.... How cool is that?

4. Don’t you think we`ve come full circle, haven’t we? People listen to classic stuff again, prefer tapes and vinyl plates over other media. Youngsters is willing to listen to music composed 30-40 years ago. And more and more old crews get re-reformed. I think it must be really great to be part of this all. It is like, you know, return to old times, being young again!!?

I love the old format (lp,casettes) I love that young people in the same age as my son prefers oldschool stuff.

5. Let’s talk about your forthcoming album where, apart from brand new tracks, there`ll be a number of re-recorded, classic cuts of yours, too: „Act Dead”, „Frost of Inferno” or „The Puzzle,” to name but a few. Well, are you no longer happy with the demo versions, or you just wished to see how re-arranged tracks would sound, eh? Whose idea it was to do so?

We decided to rerecord some old songs. This so old fans recocnize the music and when you put them togheter with some new songs you realize that we dont sound that modern after all. But we made them more groovy and ofcourse it is a new voice to them. Omar does the vocals.

6. Before the album will be out, you`ve put a track titled “Void” on the web. It is an interesting, though stylistically different song. Is it so hard now to re-enact the old atmosphere after 30 years?

What we made in the past stays in the past.. This is the way we want to sound today. I think Void represents the new album very well.

7. Well, if MEFISTO hadn’t split up in 1987, would you be veering towards this kind of music right now, what you think?

Thats my point. We took a break. That break lasted for almost 30 years. This is how sound today...

8. Can you please tell us some more about your new album, thanks?

The new album is a mixture of all our old influences. And we have added the influences we got from the 90:s Example Rage against the machine, alice in chains vs black sabbath from 70:s to early metallica and some Obscure celtic frost....

9. You`ve always mentioned VAN HALEN, SCORPIONS, ACCEPT, METALLICA, SODOM, KREATOR, KING DIAMIOND, DESTRUCTION, SAXON as your main inspirations. What do you think about these bands now? I am talking about their new records, of course.

Honestly I dont listen to their new stuff.... Ofcourse you cant avoid bands like metallica and slayer.... I guess people will say the same about us and our new album..

10. I suspect your music tastes have slightly changed throughout the years. Yet, I am pretty sure, you still love classic metal in your hearts. Do youstill follow what`s going on at the metal scene? Any new, particularly interesting bands to mention? Spill the beans…what you listen to? Old stuff or new albums too?

When it comes to metal I listen to old stuff... I dont listen to modern deathmetal at all.... Its so boring cause it is played with such a perfection. It sounds like it is made in a computer.... I guess the only new metal I liste was actually made in the 90:s...

11. The band you`ve been mentioning as one of your most important inspirations is BATHORY. All right, this band has always been extremely influential when it comes to the Scandinavian scene. Easy to notice, all these influences have kept mixing with each other, right? Now, I think it was youse and your band why „Blood Fire Death” and „Hammerheart” have some acoustic guitar parts. Surely, it was METALLICA („Ride the Lighting”) and EXODUS („Boned by Blood”) which did so too, but here in Europe youse were the first band to play like this.

Yes. We were extremely inspired by ride the lightning when we wrote the songs for the demos... I was inspired by bathory only because of the evilness and the energy, not the musical references. As you can here we dont sound like bathory at all. We wanted a good clean powerfull sound.

12. The mid 80s I when what was called “extreme music” got re-assessed. Well, at first it was heavy metal that ruled for a long time. Later, NWOBHM stormed the underground with more brutal music, yes. IRON MAIDEN, MOTORHEAD, VENOM radicalized, significantly, their contemporary music. In result, a number of other sub-genres appeared: Speed, Thrash, Black, and Death. BATHORY, in this context, seems a very important factor, yet, they weren’t the only influential band (talking about re-evaluating the limits of extreme music), were they? What can you tell us about these times? I don’t think it was too easy for a band to start playing this kind of music back then, right?

It was realy hard to play music at all.. And especially this kind of music. All other band that were in the same rehearshal places played music like bon jovi and shit. They thaugt we were punkrock or something...

13. Ok, let’s talk about present times, shall we? When exactly are you going to release “This Is the End of It All... the Beginning of Everything...”? Are you going to play live (or go on a tour) when the album is out? Or maybe you want to perform live at some summer festivals such as Brutal Assault, Metal Fest, Wacken Open Air or Sweden Rock Fest? How about Poland?

The album is titled 2.0.1.6 and will be relesaed  22 february. We would love to play some festivals in europe this summer. But no bookings made yet.

14. Ok, time to wrap up I guess. Thanks a lot for your precious time. Hope this year is going to be pretty fruitful for you. Any last statement for Oldchool Metal Maniac Magazine readers?

Everyone must remember that the new album is gonna sound different. Early in the process we said to eachother... Lets make a album that we, ourself, love. The kind of metal that makes you want to drive faster, listen louder.... That makes you stomp your feets and bang your head. Just a great fucking metal album. Let us just be a great fucking metal band. Call it whatever you want... Death, black, trash, speed.... And so on. I think you will find references from all those genres.

Leszek Wojnicz-Sianożęcki