Interview

Nasum's Anders Jackobson: A Life Of Grind

Grindcore is a genre with countless bands, but only a handful of true legendary names. Not only this, but every country seems to have one particular grindcore band they can point to as their representatives, whether that be Brutal Truth in the United States, Napalm Death in the United Kingdom or Agathocles in Belgium. In Sweden's case, it would have to be an Örebro founded outfit who released an instant genre classic in 1998, by the name of Nasum.

While Nasum only managed to release four albums in a six year span, beginning with the incredible "Inhale/Exhale" and moving ever forward from there, fans of grindcore, and indeed extreme music generally, still cite them as one of the greatest bands of the genre, who revolutionised grind for the better and whose albums still hold up as masterworks. Tragically, Nasum ceased to be in 2005 after frontman Mieszko Talarczyk was killed in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, while holidaying in Thailand. Though Nasum will never return as a full time band again, they regrouped in 2012 for a one off farewell tour, which saw Keijo Niinimaa, frontman of Rotten Sound (themselves arguably Finland's greatest grindcore band) take over vocal duties.

Finally, fans will be able to own a piece of that tour and indeed, the final piece of Nasum's history, with a new DVD, "Blasting Shit To Bits," which chronicles the final show of the tour and therefore the band, which will be released on December 18th. To find out all about the show, the tour, the legacy of the band and even the future, I spoke with Anders Jakobson, a founding member and songwriter of Nasum, who has played every instrument in the band at different times.

Diamond Oz: Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me today. Your final show is finally coming out on DVD in December. What was the reason for such a long delay between filming the show and releasing it?

Anders Jakobson: The smart answer would be: ”Well, the final show was 8 years after the band ended, so the DVD comes out another 8 years later…”. But that is obviously not the truth. When we shot the show, we didn’t really know what to do with the material. Our director Michael Panduro spent many hours assembling the cut on and off during the following years until it was finished. In 2016, I think, we recorded some interviews that has been cut into the movie and by 2017 it was actually finished and had a cinematic premiere at a film festival in Copenhagen.

Since then the movie has had its life as a festival movie, being shown here and there while we have been finishing some other material and trying to compile what could be a physical release that we could be totally happy with. We haven’t really been rushing it, but the last year or so we have been focused on finishing it. And now it’s ready for a wider release.

Oz: Aside from the show itself, what can fans expect on the DVD?

Anders: To begin with, the “show itself” is more than just a show. It’s shot in a little different way than most concerts I would say. Then it’s combined with interviews with all members telling the story of the band, the tour and final show in particular. It is an emotional and personal document of the end of a band really. Apart from the main film there are footage from before and after the show that combined covers the whole last day of the band. There are also additional interviews and some other footage from the farewell tour. It’s a nice package that is very much worth watching if you are a fan of the band.

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Interview

Rotten Sound On "Drain," New Music And Nasum

Grindcore is a law unto itself. The name of the genre was coined by former Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris and has since gone on to include some of the best names in extreme music such as Carcass, Bolt Thrower and Brutal Truth, though the first two have always been a matter of debate. While North America boasted such names as Terrorizer, Discordance Axis and the aforementioned Brutal Truth and the genre was arguably started in Britain, it's in Europe where we can find some of the absolute best grindcore has to offer, with one of the very best coming from Vaasa, Finland. They're called, Rotten Sound.

For twenty six years, Rotten Sound has put out high quality releases and become one of the most beloved names in all of grindcore. At their recent show in London, I caught up with frontman Keijo Niinimaa to discuss what the band has in store for the future, the twentieth anniversary of their sophomore album, "Drain" and his time spent fronting Nasum on their farewell tour. You can watch it in full below. More...

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