As far as I know, CENTINEX always was an amicable band, however your newest MCD, "Bloodhunt", signifies first lineup changes since the year of 1991… You took the new singer and guitarist (both from DELLAMORTE), however it wasn't a best possible choice in my view, since CENTINEX undoubtedly lost some originality. Mathias was a great singer, and I just can't understand why did you decide to replace him with a Matti Kaerki-clone??? Furthermore, I wonder whom did you give the sack exactly: Andreas or Kenneth (talking about the guitarists)?

- Well, this was intresting.... You start to complain right away..!!
Mattias and Andreas didn't give the band as much time and support as
needed so they had to go! The new members are Jonas on guitar and Johan on vocals, and yes, Johan might sound a bit as M. Karki but so did Mattias as well, at least according to various reviews! I don't share your opinion about him being a clone, he is better than both Mattias and this DISMEMBER dude...!! This wasn't the first line-up change since '91, there have been many actually. I'm now the only original member left....

Let's discuss your new material a bit, ok? Right now I'm listening to "Reborn Through Flames" and it seems like it features more melodic and "black metallish" stuff if comparing to f.ex. "Reflections" or "Malleus Maleficarum", while "Bloodhunt" is more 'Swedish-sounding' and brutal, also less complicated. It lacks any synths or electronics as well as black metal elements…

- Strange.... Many "Bloodhunt" reviews says that we do now sound more "black-metalish" than ever before! Everybody have their own views...
The new tracks are more complicated to play than the ones on "Reborn.." that's for sure, how it then sounds is maybe a different case!? Yeah, we skipped the synth stuff, we wanted to keep it raw and aggressive!

It was definitely a surprise to me, when I discovered that "Bloodhunt" was executed in certain Black Lounge Studio, the one I have never heard about before… Why so? Weren't you satisfied with the way Tomas (Skogsberg) treated you or it's Sunlight's equipment that sucks?

- Black Lounge is a new studio which is owned by Jonas, our guitarist. So why travel somewhere else when you can get a better result for a cheaper price at "home"!? Sunlight is a good studio, and Tomas is a great producer, but we decided to do it like this and as it seems now we will do all upcoming CENTINEX recordings at Black Lounge...!?
 
You have two vinyl singles out through Norway's Oskorei Productions, right? I wonder why didn't you unleash the same stuff in the shape of CD-single? You know, there're some unreleased songs that I'd like to listen to, however I don't have a necessary equipment in order to play vinyl records!

- We have one 7"EP , "Shadowland", out through Oskorei and then they
also released the 10" vinyl version of "Bloodhunt"! We did a split 7"EP with INVERTED back in '96 but that was through Unholy Baphomet Rec and Voices Of Death... We want to keep the vinyl-culture alive, vinyls are alot cooler than these clinical, steril compact-discs!! Those who are with us and buy those releases will recieve some small "bonuses" in form of extra tracks etc. On January 1st 2000 Oskorei are going to release our "Apocalyptic Armageddon" 7"EP. A limited (500 copies) ep with three new exclusive tracks only available on this release! I think you should buy a vinyl-player, right...!?!?

As far as I remember, both, "Reflection" and "Reborn Through Flames", featured few synths played by Andreas… Are you going to use keyboards or any alike instruments further?

- I played synth on "Reborn..", and those small parts were so easy to
play that any fuckin' moron could have fixed it! I can hardly imaginate that there will be any synth on upcoming recordings but of course you never know...!?

"Subconscious Lobotomy" and "Transcend The Dark Chaos"… These ones are very difficult-of-access nowadays, especially the latter cassette EP. What about remastering and re-releasing them in the shape of CD? Have you thought about it?

- Actually Repulse are going to re-release our two first albums,
"Subconscious.." and "Malleus..", both on one CD, in Oct/Nov this year! The "Malleus.." CD contains material from three different recordings and the whole "Transcend.." cass-ep is also there so soon you have the possibility to get it..!! Yeah, these two albums will be re-mixed and re-mastered....

Seems like CENTINEX is not the kind of band which easily gets along together with the record labels, eh? "Subconscious Lobotomy" was brought forth the light by Underground Records (by the way, how are they doing now?), then we had Wild Rags, Diehard / Emanzipation and, finally, Repulse…

- Underground Records are dead since many years! Or at least I think
so...!? Anyway, we have had the legal possibilities to change labels and when something better is offered, and you are free to go, why not do it!? We are extremely satisfied with Repulse, now we feel that we have found a label that gives us the support we think we deserve!?

Lyrically, your band definitely stands against a background of death metal acts… Such titles as "Upon The Ancient Ground" or "Sorrow Of The Burning Wasteland" (from "Malleus Maleficarum"), "The Dimension Beyond" or "Into The Funeral Domain" ("Reflections"), "Embraced By Moonlight" or "Summon The Golden Twilight" ("Reborn Through Flames"), "Under The Pagan Glory" or "Luciferian Moon" ("Bloodhunt") may force some black metal freaks to think of CENTINEX as of 'dark' band, don't you think so? I fancy their confused and angry faces after they've bought any of your CD's, ha ha! But ok, enough kidding. Actually, I just wanted you to tell me anything you'd like to, regarding lyrics of yours. Yes, it's a typical question, but I'm asking it simply because I've never read a single line out of your verses…

- Yeah, our lyrics are quite "dark". But if you play aggressive music
the lyrics should be that as well, right? I can't understand bands who claim they play death metal and then they sing about romance, lost love, ex-girlfriends and other crap!! Death is about worshipping death and destruction!! Some of the tracks on "Bloodhunt" are based upon glorious war-themes and I think there will be more of that in the future...!?

"Reborn Through Flames" features "Under The Guillotine" , a cover from KREATOR and "Bloodhunt's" 10" vinyl version has a DEATH's tune, "Mutilation", among others… Now don't tell me that each of your further efforts will have at least one cover song!

- Yeah, they will, it's a new "concept" we have! Kidding...! We just felt for doing cover-versions of those great tracks, lets see what the future brings...??

Kalimaa… Hmm, don't you think that giving a name to the drummachine is rather weird thing? By the way, certain death metal band using programmed drumset also looks quite strange… at least, taking into account the fact that there're plenty of talented drummers over there, in Sweden!

- Yeah, there are plenty of talented drummers in Sweden but not that many in our area!! But we do now actually have a human drummer, Kennet Englund, who joined in June. He has been playing in bands such as DELLAMORTE (suprise!?) and UNCANNY in the past!

How many gigs have you played so far? Do you either have any special kind of show or headbanging is the only 'special effect' you perform while being on stage? Moreover, what about drums? I mean, is there anyone who replaced 'Kalimaa' live?

- Not so many....I haven't counted really, but I think it's somewhere
around 35 gigs or something.... We don't have any special stage show, just headbanging, leather & metal! No, we didn't have any drummer who replaced Kalimaa live, "he" was with us!

'The only major problem I have with this LP is the lame and cartoonish computer generated cover art, which has no place in the visions I get from this LP' - these are the words of Andy Harris, the one who reviewed "Reflections" in Vae Solis about two years ago… and I believe, all of us have to agree with him, however only when it comes to the album mentioned above, since both of your latest releases ("Reborn Through Flames" and "Bloodhunt") possess undoubtedly stunning and tremendous appearance! Whose idea stands behind their visual concept (cover art and layout)?

- The reactions on the "Reflections" cover were quite divided! There were those who hated it and those who loved it, sometimes it felt there was nothing in between!? We didn't see the finished painting before the album was printed, we had only seen some primitive sketches.....!! The "Reborn.." cover was painted by Joe Petagno and the painting was already finished and ready when we decided to go for it. The cover photo for "Bloodhunt" is taken from a book we found, the tanks are Russian by the way!!! The layouts for both these albums are made by Repulse and we are very satisfied with the way they turned out!

Your bio says that 'the band has  been featured on various samplers for magazines, etc', therefore let me display my interest in the following: did you participate in any label's compilation and, if talking about mass media, what magazines exactly were sage enough to put CENTINEX on their sample CD's?

- There have been various mags like Deadly Art, Necromancer, Oskorei
Mag, Chaos Mag etc etc. I have only seen a few of all those mags, most of them have been sent straight to Repulse. Yes, there are some label comps but I'm too tired to remember them right now.... Talking about comps, check out the upcoming KREATOR tribute on American Fullmoon Productions, we do a version of "Ripping Corpse" there!

Time has come to move to more or less abstract subjects, such as the few following ones… For example, what values do you support (generally speaking)?

- Honesty & respect!

Give us three words in order to define a perfect personality (the way you see it, of course)…

- Personality....?? Who cares as long as they have big tits, hah!

Imagine that a bunch of aliens abducted you and gave you only one chance to speak. What would you tell them? (*grins*)

- Piss off, I'm busy!

That's all, Martin. I hope, the questions were fine. Anyway, praise me or curse me, but here's some place for you to say (or add) anything you wish…

- Thanx for the interview! The questions were fine, maybe my answars
were a bit boring but I have a hangover (Sunday today) and I'm extremely tired, sorry! Check out our releases & stay metal! ARMAGEDDON PREVAILS..!!!

The Carnal Legion Of Centinex
Martin Schulman
Sturegatan 8
776 35 Hedemora - Sweden
E-mail: centinex@hotmail.com
Fax: +46 (0)225 15385
Official website: http://hem.passagen.se/davthvs/centinex