Daniel Ekeroth’s beloved Swedish Death Metal book has had some rabid supporters over the years, but voracious reader Alex Sooz from Spain is walking the extra mile with Nicke Andersson’s iconic cover illustration tattooed into her flesh. Needles over several sessions by Jaime Bosch at Inkfierno in Mallorca, Spain.
Bazillion Points Books, the Swedish Film Institute, and author Daniel Ekeroth (Swedish Death Metal, Swedish Sensationsfilms) got the ball rolling for the first-ever uncut screening in Stockholm of director Boarne Vibenius’ 1973 touchstone exploitation classic Thriller: A Cruel Picture. The uncut film print hasn’t been seen elsewhere since the Cannes Film Festival in 1973.
The film’s star Christina Lindberg (Exposed, Maid in Sweden) participated in a Q&A afterwards, and then she gamely stood between Daniel Ekeroth (left) and the book’s translator, Magnus Henriksson (right).
As outlined in Ekeroth’s book Swedish Sensationsfilms, Thriller was a groundbreaking European grindhouse film in the early 1970s which rose to notoriety in the 2000s as the primary inspiration for American director Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill series. “I love Christina Lindberg,” Tarantino said in 2003. “And that’s definitely who Daryl Hannah’s character is based on. In the next movie, she’s wearing mostly black. Just like Thriller… And that is, of all the revenge movies I’ve ever seen, that is definitely the roughest. The roughest revenge movie ever made! There’s never been anything as tough as that movie.”
Daniel Ekeroth will present three other sensationsfilms at the Swedish Film Institute this fall, including Around the World With Fanny Hill and The Language of Love—the infamous Swedish film Robert DeNiro takes Cybill Shepherd to see on their ill-fated date in Taxi Driver.
UPDATE: In the life imitates art department, one elderly couple on a date was spotted at the subsequent Language of Love screening. Bickle lives!
Christina Lindberg, the cover girl and foreword writer of Bazillion Point’s Swedish Sensationsfilms, will be one of the celebrity guests at Flashback Weekend in Chicago, August 12-14. The cult actress, Quentin Tarantino favorite and all-around great gal will do the usual signing and chatting, and Synapse Films—who have released a number of her movies in the US—will have the book for sale. Here’s your chance to meet a legend!
Here’s a look at the new book by Swedish Death Metal author Daniel Ekeroth:
Coming April 2011: ‘Swedish Sensationsfilms’ Book Reveals
Naked Glory of Pioneering Exploitation Cinema
Available April 1 in bookstores everywhere, Bazillion Points Books presents SWEDISH SENSATIONSFILMS: A Clandestine History of Sex, Thrillers, and Kicker Cinema (ISBN 978-09796163-6-5 US$19.95), a lavish and fiery 328pp retrospective of over 200 banned and cut films produced during the golden age of Swedish sin. “I was born into a rising whirlwind of madness,” says author Daniel Ekeroth. “As the ’70s came along, all limits were forgotten. Sweden was flooded with sexually explicit and violent films of every kind, and all morals were gone.”
Sweden’s sexy reputation was sealed the moment Ulla Jacobsson bared her breasts for One Summer of Happiness in 1951, crushing the Hays Code and igniting a mad race to make sensationsfilms! Produced in the backyard of the Swedish film industry, these sexually daring films form a canon of countless movies dealing with shocking or taboo subjects: street punks, sadistic mobsters, space aliens, unruly housewives, ruthless drug pushers, bloodthirsty ninjas, teen temptresses, lingonberry cowboys, bearded perverts, and drunken vikings.
Working far from the confines of Hollywood, the exploits of young director Ingmar Bergman, actress Christina Lindberg, ultra-villain Heinz Hopf, free-spirited Stellan Skarsgård, and American expats like Dennis Hopper, David Carradine, and Troy Donahue have spawned a legacy that inspired Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left, and Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill.
With dark humor and an eye for cultural quirks that will leave readers wondering whether these films are even real, Ekeroth paints the portrait of a national cinema run amok. Special sections include two historical overviews, a recollection by starlet Christina Lindberg, a list of essential sensationsfilms, a rogues gallery of directors and cast, and a hilarious guide to curious Swedish customs.
Why does John Waters cite Ingmar Bergman as a role model? What are raggare, and why do they hate punk rockers? Can taking the name “Marquis de Sade” really change a bachelor’s luck with women instantly? Why won’t France or Germany make films with Sweden any more? Ekeroth reveals all… in Swedish Sensationsfilms.
For more information, page samples, and to view film trailers, visit this location: http://www.sensationsfilm.com
Here’s my rough attempt to capture the spectacle of 42,000 Iron Maiden fans streaming into Sarsfield stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before losing their minds on March 28. Click that image for the full 3240-pixel-wide panorama. Actually, there should be another panel to the right to show the rear seating section — another giant flank of 8,000 or so fans.
This entire experience could not have been more huge. My intrepid she-woman and I walked many miles to the outskirts of the city, limping the last mile or so. We could hear Sepultura playing inside as the sun went down, but had to negotiate a line about two miles long before entering. Everyone arrived late—turns out Argentina was playing Venezuela in soccer. Of course Maiden knew that, and they stalled until well after the game was over. Hilarious.
The crush as the intro tape rolled was intense. You can see a tall chain link fence in the photo. Three small doors in that fence were the only passage to general admission. People were losing their heads pressing forward while Churchill’s voice rang out through the dusk. The funny thing was that this show was part of a Quilmes beer-sponsored music festival — but they didn’t sell beer. We accidentally entered through the wrong door, and access to our better seats (on the left in the photo) was blocked by a tall barbed-wire fence and a moat.
Then came Iron Maiden, playing classics to a sold-out crowd of 42,000 South Americans. Imagine a Superbowl game with every spectator cheering the same side, and without any dull moments. People were crying. The mood was a cross of jubilation and reverence. Since there was no room to move, a few thousand people just pogoed during the fast guitar bridge, evidently triggering earthquakes and volcanic eruptions around the world in the weeks that followed.
Bruce Dickinson had his usual sharp words for Madonna fans and the authorities, but let’s face it — Iron Maiden has really conquered each and every country in the world like no other metal band.
Here’s a rip from the Sirius live stream of my slickly-produced July 19, 2008 interview with singer Tomas Lindberg and guitarist Martin Larsson of AT THE GATES. This has been floating around the black market for a while, so I might as well give it a legit home. Plus it’s a good blast from the recent past while my Bloody Roots radio show graciously steps aside for the surprise “Mandatory Metallica” month on Sirius XM.
Needless to say, this was produced for a nation of 9 million subscribers driving around in cars, so there’s a big difference in tone compared to the highly personal demo posts around here, but I hope you get a kick out of it. Regardless, At the Gates set a super-tall standard for reunion tours — I’ve pretty much since sworn off oldies acts.
From the Blabbermouth description: Vocalist Tomas Lindberg and guitarist Martin Larsson of the reactivated Swedish metallers AT THE GATES will appear on this week’s “Bloody Roots” show on Sirius Satellite Hard Attack channel, discussing their 12-year hiatus, the decision to reunite for a number of summer 2008 shows, the rise of the fabled “Gothenburg” melodic death metal sound, and the upcoming U.S. release of Daniel Ekeroth’s Swedish Death Metal book.
Highlights from the interview:
* Lindberg on the band’s 1996 break-up: “We had a couple years of hard touring, and getting sick of each other on tour. Basically, if we would have been the age we are now, we could have just taken a break and chilled for a while. We were just so immature and totally at our own throats.”
* Lindberg on the “Gothenburg sound”: “There’s a huge difference between AT THE GATES and IN FLAMES, as I hope everybody notices. We have a focus on the brutality. We’re not only melody, we’re a death metal band. The Gothenburg sound is to me like a non-existent entity. AT THE GATES, IN FLAMES, and DARK TRANQUILLITY, it’s like three different worlds.”
The interview includes music by AT THE GATES as well as Lindberg’s DISFEAR and GROTESQUE and Larsson’s THIS QUIET EARTH. “Bloody Roots” is a “heavy metal history lesson” airing four times weekly on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Hard Attack, hosted by Ian Christe (Bazillion Points Books, Bazillion Points demoblog, author of “Sound Of The Beast”).
AT THE GATES: Bloody Roots Interview on Sirius XM 07/19/08 [60 mins., 81.6MB MP3]
Playlist:
AT THE GATES – “Slaughter of the Soul” from SLAUGHTER OF THE SOUL
AT THE GATES – “Terminal Spirit Disease” from TERMINAL SPIRIT DISEASE
AT THE GATES – “The Swarm” from TERMINAL SPIRIT DISEASE
GROTESQUE – “Blood Flows From the Altar” from IN THE EMBRACE OF EVIL
LIERS IN WAIT – “Liers in Wait” from SPIRITUALLY UNCONTROLLED ART
DISFEAR – “Get it Off” from LIVE THE STORM
THIS QUIET EARTH – “Wizball” from 2008 DEMO
THE HAUNTED – “DOA” from ONE KILL WONDER
AT THE GATES – “Blinded by Fear” from SLAUGHTER OF THE SOUL
TYRANT – “Hell Has Broken Loose” from RECLAIM THE FLAME
Recently I got the chance to write a quick tribute essay about Grave for a collection covering their Century Media years. I’ve been as guilty as the next man of overlooking and taking Grave for granted, but gazing into the six-foot-deep pit holding their full output, the words of praise came quickly.
Here’s the tribute:
And here’s the collection for eight bucks:
BrooklynVegan posted this street scene from yesterday’s Brooklyn Book Festival, depicting Sonic Youth’s giant emeritus Thurston Moore flanked by two great accessories: Ian MacKaye, and the Swedish Death Metal book. If I could have been there, I would have given Ian Senior a copy of my Van Halen book (which outs him as a lifelong fan on page 55), so they could be a matched pair of metal-literate independent thinkers. Cheers all around–these two and their pals extolling the DIY mindset made this book possible.
Now I’ll sit back and wait for Sonic Youth to catch the fever and record a Bathory cover.
Photo by David Shankbone
Time Out New York has splashed a bucket of cool water on the ongoing gnawing heat of anxiety and alienation in my individual stretch of bones. Just look! In less than a page, the esteemed Elisabeth Vincentelli finds things to like about my creaky old Sound of the Beast metal history, the new Swedish Death Metal book, and in fact the entire modus operandi of Bazillion Points Books. So now I guess I have to live up to something and publish some more books. Or go swimming. In my experience, the calming effect of a nice piece of press lasts a few days– but I’ve honestly never had one this nice. I think the Nightwish book will be out in December, the Andy McCoy book in January, and Jeff Wagner’s magnum opus next summer–when he’s done swimming in the prog metal ectoplasm.
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWDNQvENWuo"]
Larvaes and germs, we have The Solution, the latest project of Nicke Andersson, one of the main originators of Swedish death metal (and cover artist of the Swedish Death Metal book). This dude keeps going and going and going, and he’s always wearing a sharp lid. Vocals by Scott Morgan of The Rationals and Sonic’s Rendezvous Band. This clip for the song “You Gotta Come Down” was shot on one roll of Super-8, as director Jim Heneghan explains: “A roll of Super-8 runs for about 3 minutes and 20 seconds of moving pictures. The song ‘You Gotta Come Down’ runs 3 minutes and 23 seconds. So Super-8 was a perfect choice for a one-shot, one-take Super-8 promo film.”
