Our bro-bros over at MetalSucks just posted an interview they conduction with Marten Hagstrom of MESHUGGAHHHHHHH. During the interview, Marten is a cool dude and opens up about touring and possibly writing new material this year, but it seems once MetalSucks writer Vince Neilstien asks him about melodic death metal, that's when the shit really hits the fan:
MetalSucks: You guys came from Sweden with a lot of famous metal bands, at the same time as a lot of melodic death metal, which has sort of gone its own way now. How do you feel about that scene and those guys?
Hagstrom: I hate it. I totally loathe it. Listen, I have nothing against the guys in the bands. I have nothing against the bands. I'm happy for them. If they're doing well and if that's what they want to do then fucking "hey good for you". If you're talking from my personal tastes, I prefer when bands play metal and not Slaughter and pop music with fucking attributes of a metal band. You got two guys with distorted guitars and then you got two chicks singing and three keyboards and then they play "lalalala". It's not why I got into metal. It's not like I'm saying it can't be melodic. Cynic is very melodic and still fucking awesome. There are a lot of bands that people appreciate a lot over here, like I said I'm happy for their success, but I do not care for their music at all. It's formula music. It's built the same way that pop music is. It's performed the same way pop music is with back tracks and everything. They're like "oh, we're so fucking bad ass and we look so hard". Most bands from Sweden know what they're doing when they're playing. That's a great benefit. It might be music that I hate, but they can still pull it off which is alright.
MetalSucks: It's good for all Swedish bands I guess.
Hagstrom: I have nothing against it, but I would never listen to it. Having said that, there are a shitload of Swedish bands that I adore. The Haunted is a great fucking band. Entombed is a great fucking band. There is a lot of cool fucking shit around. A lot of the stuff that does well in Europe doesn't necessarily do well over here. It's like Nightwish, they're from Finland, to call that metal is a fucking insult. It's probably good music, but it's not fucking metal. No way. I told Marcus, on our label Nuclear Blast (because they're on it), "I know you're making a shitload of money, but you're making fools of yourself." He's like "I know". He's like that.
Burn! I can't say I disagree as a lot of Sweedish melodic death metal (or as I like to call it: metalcore) is extremely poppy, and it's great to see somebody calling out the entire genre. And, NIGHTWISH? That's a whole other beast! Click here to read the full interview.
