Hello. How is everything going?
It’s ok I guess. I am sitting here with a glass of wine and am about to answer your questions.

You just released a new album, "Terra Necrosis", what do you think about it? Are you satisfied with it?
Hell yeah! At first we thought it would be a bit hard to top the previous album; “Recremation”. I have to say that we managed to top it pretty well, and most of all it’s a much more varied album and the musicianship as well as the production is way stronger than any of the previous Nominon albums.

"Terra Necrosis" is a quite interesting title, what does it represent, or refer to? Can you give a short overview on what the lyrics are about?
The title was invented by the original Nominon vocalist Peter Nilsson. He lives in Chicago nowadays and Juha and he chat from time to time over the net. Peter mentioned the title “Terra Necrosis” during one of the sessions with Juha, and when we were recording the album at Necromorbus Studio we all sat down and discussed what we should call the coming album, you know. Juha dropped the name idea that Peter had and we were all kind of thrilled, because it suits the whole concept of the album extremely well. “Terra Necrosis” means more or less that the day of reckoning is upon us and that there’s no turning back, it’s the end. This album is definitely the darkest album in the history of the band. The lyrics are about lots of occultism, diseases and other morbid things. People should read them and find out on their own.

The cover looks really good! Is it hand drawn or computer made? What doses in represent? Was it drawn based on directions given from the band or was the painter given free hands?
The cover design suits the title and the music very good. It’s our friend Death walking around and just keeping an eye that all is gone, vanished and never to return in any kind of living form. The artist who did the cover design; Lena VH Mörker had an original idea that Juha found and showed us and then we all decided to work with her and tell her how to make the whole picture look even more deadly, so to speak. Lena works with computers I guess, but she is also a fine photographer. I don’t really care how she works, to be honest, as long as the result is as good as on “Terra Necrosis”.

Why did you not use Chris Moyen again?
This question has turned up a few times since the release of the album. Of course it would have been easy for us using our good friend Mr Moyen once again, but we were looking for something else this time around. “Terra Necrosis” is the third Nominon album and if you look at them all for a short while you will soon realize that all three of them look not like the other, which is a strong point I would say. Yet they all are brutal in their own way and style.

Once again the vinyl version was released by Blood Harvest Records. What do you think about their work? What do you think about the label?
We were surprised when they contacted us a couple of years ago telling us that they wanted to work with Nominon. I was simply amazed because I had previously never heard of the label, and I thought I knew all the god damn labels there is out there in the underground. Since then they have proved that they are very reliable and extremely professional and honest towards the bands they work with. We recently heard from them that both the “Recremation” and the “Terra Necrosis” LP’s are sold-out (500 copies each), so we agreed on letting them print another 500 copies of both of them. As it looks now, Blood Harvest Rds will also do the vinyl version of the long-awaited debut album “Diabolical Bloodshed” during 2008.

There where no bonus cover on the vinyl version, as it were on the "Recremation". Why no cover this time around?
Simply because we felt that the ten tracks that is on the album is enough. Also worth mentioning is that the cover of Whiplash’s “Spit On Your Grave” that were featured on the “Recremation” LP was not recorded at the same time as the actual album, yet it was a track that was good enough to be released as a bonus track.

I think that the music has advanced between each release of yours I have heard, would you agree? How would you compare "Terra Necrosis" to your previous releases?
I agree with you on this one Mordant. Yet I would like to point out that the difference between the first and the second album is a little bit bigger than between the second album and the new one. But really, it’s natural since it was six years between the first ones and only two years between these last two. “Terra Necrosis” is without a doubt the strongest album. It will stand the test of time for sure.

Why did you decide to release the compilation "Remnants of a Diabolical History"?
From the start that collection was only meant for the South-American market. It was supposed to be released by a small Colombian label. Since they fucked things up for months and months as well as Pulverised Records contacting us when they heard about the delays and problems, telling us that they could do it, we let them take care of the release instead. Six weeks later it was out. I mean, it would have been stupid to back out on such a cool release just because a label screwed things up don’t you think?! There was also a contract written and signed between Nominon and Agonia Records two years ago for a Gatefold LP version of this collection, but that never happened. Too bad, it looks bad ass and it’s also live bonus track on that version. The whole design was made by E from Watain and it looks way more extreme as a vinyl than a plain CD.

You seem to be working faster nowadays, am I right? Between your first and second full-length it took six years. You last two came out with two years between them. How come?
After the release of the first album nothing really happened with the band, besides playing a few shows. A lot of discussions and line-up changes as well as label problems and various crap followed. What people don’t really know is that Nominon signed with the American label Relapse Records back in late 2001/early 2002. It was the first thing that actually happened when I joined the band. We signed the agreement, sent it back to them and then…Surprise… Nothing! They told us later that they thought we had too much of internal problems within the band, like line-up problems as well as I got seriously ill due to kidney problems during early 2002 which ended up with the fact that we were unable to tour properly for a while. Nevermind, the whole thing is that instead of telling us that they never really liked us from the start they were making up all kind of lies and crap. It’s just plain and simple stupidity. They had a cool guy named Tom Hailey working for them at the time. He was a huge Nominon fan. He was the one who convinced their boss to sign us. Directly after he left the label to work somewhere else they kicked us out. That’s business and life I guess, it has nothing to do with Death Metal. Anyway, we’ve managed to get our revenge now with “Terra Necrosis”, since this album getting lots of great reviews and do have a magnificent distribution in The States for example, via RED distribution.

But no splits, or EPs at all between the releases, why is that?
Good questions, but simply because there was no labels who contacted us or where eager to work something out in time. There was some talking about a split live 7” EP with Nominon and Centinex, but that one got deleted completely. Still the responsible label behind that planned release; Badger Records from The Netherlands will instead release a Live 7” EP with Nominon pretty soon, like in two months from now. I would like to point out though that the collection CD that we just talked about; “Remnants from a Diabolical HistorY” was released during 2006, so there was at least one special release in between the two last full-length albums.

I read that you are going over to the states for the first time. How does that feel, are you looking forward to it?
Of course we all look forward to that. We recently got offered to tour over there already in March with AngelcorpsE, but since we have been confirmed for the Central Illinois Metalfest in July for quite some time, we decided to do a two week thing at that period of time instead. It looks as we will be doing some really cool shows when we get there next summer, we have heard of playing with bands that we could only dream about. We were supposed to tour in USA last October for a month with Benediction and Quinta Essentia, but there were some visa issues for one of the Benediction guys, so that tour got postponed. Too bad, would have been a ride touring with Benediction again. But it’s not the first time that a tour got cancelled and definitely not the last one either.

Lately there have been popping up a lot of new bands playing old school Death Metal. What is your opinion on all of these young old school bands? Why do you think this retro wave started?
I don’t know why there are all of a sudden youngsters interested to play Death metal?! I think it’s a good thing though, bands like Tribulation and such. They have the right spirit and attitude. I prefer that the young kids play Death metal though, instead of any Nü-Metal crap.

What are the future plans of Nominon?
Write new material. Release the Live 7” EP. Do some smaller touring in Europe as well as in The States. Hopefully start working on and releasing a DVD for the 15 year anniversary during 2008.

Thanks for the interview, end in any way you like.
Thanks a lot Mordant for the interview. Hope you will all be satisfied with the answers, I actually hate email interviews, but your interview was kind of neat so it’s all good. For all the latest news, further info as well as Merchandise, check the Nominon website: www.nominon.com or listen to some real music; www.myspace.com/nominon
Let the grotesque music forever reign in Hell. 666. Hello to Impaled Nazarene, Nifelheim and Watain, you guys are the sickest!