Welcome, everyone, to the latest episode of Signals
from Mars. This is episode 432. I'm your host,
Victor. And for this episode, we welcome aboard
Ulf Uffe Pettersson, vocalist of the Swedish
thrash band, Mezro. My interview with him up
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two a day and I get turned on to things myself.
Mesro is one of them. I posted two of their videos
off of their latest album, which just came out.
It is Embrace the Awakening. I get turned on
to new music all the time. And that's why Patreon
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Thanks again for checking the episode out and
enjoy this interview with Ufa. Welcome everyone
to the latest episode of Signals from Mars. Joining
me today is Ufa from the band Mezro. The band
has just released a new album, Embrace the Awakening,
and we're going to be chatting with him for a
little bit here. How are you today, sir? I'm
really good, thank you. Winter just got to us.
Just yesterday. It's very cold, very snowy, and
we have some sort of traffic problems, as usual.
Yeah. Winter got to us here today, but for me,
in the north of Spain, winter is a lot of rain,
some freezing rain, and snow in the mountains.
And it's, what, eight degrees. I'm sure it's
a lot colder there. It's like eight below. Yeah.
Yeah, it's a little colder. See that? Yeah. So
there have been a lot of losses this year in
the metal world, specifically in Sweden. At the
gates, Thomas Lindbergh passed away, which is
a huge impact for the Swedish metal community.
What did that loss mean to you? It was it means
I was it was terrible. Actually, my. My younger
brother is the guitarist of one of Thomas' bands,
Dysphere. So I've been following this quite closely.
And now cancer is a terrible disease, as everyone
knows. Especially when it hits you like this.
It's really bad. It was really bad. And Thomas
had a big impact. on the whole metal community.
Because he moved around in different genres,
you know, like Crust, which my brother plays,
the Indysphere, and then he played death metal
and melodic death metal. And he was one of the
front figures from the Gothenburg sound. And
everyone will remember him in some way, especially
in our age. It's like for... It was like four
years younger than me, but we grew up during
the same period when metal exploded in both Sweden
and Europe as well. So now it's really sad. It's
terrible. Okay. And you just kind of alluded
to it. From what people tell me, metal has really
never gone away in Sweden. Having said that,
You're actually in a band that has the tour,
puts out albums. Can a band like yours stay self
-sufficient just by touring, excuse me, Sweden,
for example, or does the band have to go outside
of Sweden to be able to stay afloat? We have
to go outside Sweden, actually. No question about
that. We're trying really hard right now to get
things going. We restarted the band in 2021 after
laying low for 30 years or something like that.
And when we restarted the band, we discovered
that life isn't that easy. You can't ride on
an old wave, so to speak. So we had to start
all over again and we had to establish ourselves
again. It's been tough, actually. Okay. Does
Swedish radio help you guys out at all? Because
from what I'm told, they've, again, never stopped
playing certain types of metal. But for a band
like yours, is there support? No, I don't think
we have too much radio support in Sweden. But
as you said, metal never dies in Sweden. And
metal has been around for so, so many years and
many decades. So the roots go deep, definitely.
And that's why everything is happening in Sweden
as well. The progression from the 80s and up
until now has been totally awesome. And I think,
of course, the culture in Sweden concerning extreme
music and also playing hard rock or metal is
very strong. Yeah. And that's interesting because
it is really kind of a two extremes because you
do have, you know, you alluded to the Gotham
Berg sound and you have a lot of extreme bands,
but you also have a lot of bands that put out
sleaze rock and glam metal and stuff like that.
So it's kind of stayed strong across the board.
It isn't just one side or the other side. They
both kind of stayed afloat. And that's cool with
metal today because when I grew up in the 80s
with music or harder music, it was very divided.
You either listened to thrash and death metal
and you couldn't listen to it all. Nowadays,
a metal fan can listen to Europe and he can also
listen to Entombed or Us or At The Gates or whatever.
That's how it looks like today, I think. And
that's very cool. Yeah. And that's how I grew
up as well, where you couldn't listen to the
stuff that was on TV and like thrash. Even beyond
that, I always tell this story on the show. In
my high school, you were either a Slayer and
a Metallica fan or a Megadeth and Anthrax fan.
Oh. And you get older and you're like. Well,
that's just stupid. I like what I like, you know.
It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. So,
yeah, I lived through that as well. So you just
mentioned the band took a few decades off. Why
did you guys decide to take that long break?
Well, it was due to the... Tough circumstances
for us back in Sweden in 1991. We lost a record
deal in 1991 with Active Records. We put out
an album, then came The Killing in 1990. And
things were going quite well for us, especially
in Sweden and in Scandinavia. But then the death
metal wave rolled in over Sweden and Europe.
And when we lost the record deal, we tried to
get a new one, but it was impossible. So we tried
several times, but in the end, we sort of lost
it. We lost the hunger and we got a bit disillusioned,
you could say that perhaps. Yeah, yeah. A bit
like that. And then also, I grew up with hard
rock and heavy metal in the 70s. When you get
a bit older, you start searching for your roots
again. And so we lost thrash a bit, perhaps,
after 93, after 94, and started looking at other
things and other more hard rock influences. So
in 93, when things were going quite bad for us,
we decided to call it a day. And I started actually,
I was in a band directly after Mesro. I did the
vocals in a band called Rosicrucian. We did an
album, we released, I did one album with them.
They did like two on Black Mark. You know, it
was the Bathory, the Bathory guy's father had
the label, the boss, Börje Forsberg. So we released
one album, but then I sort of got tired of the
thrash and extreme metal business and just quit
music in 97 or something like that. But the other
guys in the band right now, I'm the only one
who actually quit music. The other guys still
played, and two of them are a bit younger than
the rest of us. Okay. And how easy or difficult
was it for you when you put the band back together
in 2021 to find the right musicians to come back
to make sure that they understood your vision
of the music? And I'm sure it needed to be important
for you that you got along with all of them as
well. Yeah, yeah. me and the bass player connie
it was me and him that started restarted the
band and it was it was actually a coincidence
from the beginning and um our our original guitarist
the messer stuff he died from cancer in 2018
so we found an old song that we had done with
him in 2011 so we decided to you know um fulfill
some commitments to him and do the song. And
we did. And it was really fun. We actually discovered
it was so cool to play thrash again. And when
we came to that point, I really knew who to call.
And that was my old guitarist, Ian Rosicrucian,
called Magnus Söderman. Probably the most talented
musician I've ever... So he was very talented
when he was very young. They called him like,
you know, Yngwie Jr. So he's like that. He was
very neoclassical back then, but now he's much
broader and he can play anything. But he's a
real thrasher in heart. Okay. So I phoned him
directly. And he said, yes, immediately, actually,
as he was standing talking to me. So the three
of us started making new music. And then the
other guy, we added the other guys. Ronny Bjarnström,
our other guitarist, he's actually a quite well
-known producer and technician in the metal community
in Sweden and Scandinavia and Europe. He produces
and engineers records. He's done with Suga, for
example, and other bands. So he's really good.
The important thing is that we have the same
roots. He's a bit younger than the rest of us,
but he loves the old Bay Area style. That's our
roots, the Bay Area thing. Nowadays, I think
we have other influences as well. Yeah, and that's
interesting because when you listen to Embrace
the Awakening, yes, it's a thrash metal album,
but you hear other things coming through in the
music as well, where if you really pay attention,
you get flavors of different styles of metal.
How purposefully was that done? Were there songs
where you wanted to focus on certain things or
when you started writing, things just started?
coming out itself? I think since Ronny and Magnus
are doing the riffs, they sort of collaborate
in best case. On some songs, they've done it
on their own. And they have different influences.
As I said, Ronny is very old school, Bay Area
orientated, but Magnus is very broad. So their
songs sound quite different from each other.
And Magnus, there is a part in the song Inside
the Burning Twilight after the second chorus,
I think. It's sort of almost jazzy. It's thrash,
but you could hear jazzy or various opeth influences.
But he just makes the riffs. He doesn't think
about it. He just, you know, do it. And I think
that's very cool. If you can turn things like
that into thrash. Whereas Ronnie is more like,
you know, riffing like Testament or Metallica
or whatever. It's interesting that you bring
up the whole jazz connection. That makes sense
because the first thing that jumped to mind for
me was black metal. And there's a lot of influences
in black metal there. So yeah, I totally got
that in that part of the song. We've heard that
before with the black metal thing. We have a
song on the previous album, a song called What
Is Dead May Never Die. And the same goes for
just the lick before the chorus in that song.
It's also very black metal. Everyone says so,
but we haven't thought about that. Yeah. Cool.
The album itself is eight minutes, 38 minutes
long, which I think is pretty cool in the sense
that there are so many bands that because of
technology just start to, you know, they put
out an album and they'll release 15 songs, 70
minutes, 80 minutes, 90 minutes. And you get
to a point where you're like, well, I've already
heard part of this song in that other song. And
I, you know, and it kind of gets boring. Whereas
I was listening to this, I listened to this album
leading up to the interview and I listened to
it three times back to back today. It went through
just smooth and easy. It was a very easy listen.
And to me, what I got and correct me if I'm wrong,
but it seemed like you guys were going more for
the quality in the music. More so in how much
music was being released. That's very correct.
And, you know, we had 12 songs written for the
album. We chose these eight very carefully. And
the other four songs, we released the other four
songs during the spring. But these eight songs
sort of, you know, they mix well together. I
don't know about the order of the songs because
that's always a matter of taste. But we think
we did it on a purpose. We really wanted to start
the album really thrashy to get things going.
So we chose Architects of the Silent War and
Sleeping Cataclysm as the two first songs. And
you get a bit run over with those two. and then
we we sort of we slow down the tempo with this
uh symphony of twisted souls but that's still
a very thrashy song and with a nice rhythm i
think and uh those those three uh are also the
three of the singles that were released so there
are a thought behind behind all this and uh i
think it's very important how you put out the
songs on the record in and in which order As
you said, if everything starts sounding the same,
you get bored quite fast and then you stop listening.
I think we try to keep everyone who listens to
the album interested as long as we can. But I
mean, almost 40 minutes of music is always tough
to listen to, I think. Yeah, and with the three
albums, the longest one is 48 minutes. So it
seems like that's almost like a common thread
with all three of your albums where you've tried
to get the best of the best onto an album as
opposed to just throwing everything out there.
Yeah, and we got some criticism for Summon Thy
Demons because it was too long. People got bored
and every song wasn't that good. So we thought
about that really hard when we went for the third
album. The first album then came to killing back
in 1990. That's written with a lot of youth in
mind. We were very young when we did it and we
did it with a lot of heart. We lived thrash back
then, but we weren't so skilled and experienced
back then. We just wrote things. Nowadays, we
discuss and talk a lot about how we would write
the songs. It's important for us to do that.
We're a very democratic band, and we sort of
get along good. I think that's important also.
When you're younger, you're more direct in your
communication, and that could be a trouble sometimes.
When you get too direct. Nowadays, all of us
almost are in our 50s. But still has a lot of
hunger. You have to have that. You have to have
a lot of heart and a hunger to be able to play
a genre like thrash. So it seems like there are
things looking back that you wished you would
have maybe done differently way back then in
the 90s? Yeah, definitely. When you look in the
mirror, you sort of think about how things were
back then. But you also come to the conclusion
that, as I said, we were young and we lived thrash.
We were thrash. Everything was about thrash.
So it was the whole thing was thrash. And playing
thrash was one part, but living it is another
thing. So the important thing was the whole thrash
atmosphere. Nowadays, we play thrash because
we like thrash metal or heavy metal or whatever.
We have a lot of influences, as you said, but
we also have families and other work. We work
with totally different things than thrash metal.
Right. So you get the better balance nowadays.
Yeah. And I think, as I said, I think from everything
that you're saying, it really does come out in
this album. Was there anything else that you
purposefully wanted to do on this album when
you went into the studio? Yeah. Yeah. We discussed
some of the demons, the previous album a lot
and what was. sort of wrong with that one so
when we went into the studio we decided to for
example not use keyboards we use keyboards a
bit on some of the demos to get sort of a certain
atmosphere in some songs but you can you we didn't
do that on this one um and and the reason for
that it's cool with keyboards and effects i think
but uh you always had to track it live And we
really wanted to go for a more live situation
when we did this record. So these songs, I hope
these songs will go down well when we play live.
We've tried Architects and we've tried Symphony
of Twisted Souls and they went down really well.
And the more straight ahead thrash, I think.
Back to the roots. Keep the roots. Keep some
of the things from Some of the Demons, but definitely
go back to more old school thrash in a way. Okay.
And on the deluxe edition of the album, you have
a live show as well. So you got to revisit a
lot of the songs that you're mentioning, both
off the first and the second album. How important
is it to you to put that out and show people
that maybe knew the album that came out back
in 1990? see what you guys are doing today and
kind of mixing your modern sound with those classics?
As you said, it was important for us to show
people that we still play those songs. We respect
the songs and some of them are really good. Especially
now when they are played with different musicians
a bit and they are very skillful. The whole band
is very skillful compared to back in the day.
And the songs sound... They sound a bit different
in that perspective, I think. And it's very fun
to play the old songs. I love it. I love to play
these old songs. And when we play live, people
go nuts when we play the old songs. So we will
always play this older stuff. And it's good in
a live set to get up, you know, we're talking
on balance before, but it's very important to
balance those things as well. So we get a mixed,
you know, set list. We're always closest to set
with the old song Frozen Soul. I think it's the
fourth song on Then Came the Killing. That one
has always been a fan favorite from the past.
Cool. What are some of your favorite places to
play? Sweden is known for several festivals.
Is there any festival that stands out to you
as a musician and as a fan? Yeah, I think there
is a very special festival called Muskelrock.
And in English, that's muscle rock. It's a small
festival in a very small place outside in the
woods, sort of, in the south of Sweden. And it's
like 1 ,500 people in that festival, perhaps,
or something like that. But it's very cozy. And
the bands who play there are very, you know,
ultra metal. Everyone is, you know, is wearing
studded leather jackets and, you know, looks
like, everyone looks like a band who's there,
even though they're fans. Right. It's a diehard
fans. And we played there the first year when
we released Summer Night Evens in 2023. So we
played that summer at this Muscular Rock. It's
very special. Very cool. So, you know, only diehard
people. So that's very cool, I think. So in Sweden,
there are tons of festivals, often quite small
ones. But then we have Sweden Rock. We haven't
played Sweden Rock yet, but we really hope to.
But otherwise, the festivals are quite small.
Not too many people. So we played in an indoor
festival up in the north of Sweden from the same
time as Meshuggah are from, called Umeå. And
the festival is called House of Metal. And that
was also packed to capacity and very, very cool.
It was really awesome. A festival doesn't necessarily
have to be 20 ,000 people. It's just as cool
with 2 ,000 people. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I
think it's very personal for everyone what your
experience is. And it's much like talking about
success to somebody. What's successful to one
person may not be successful to somebody else.
So, you know, a festival may be enjoyable to
you for certain reasons. And another festival,
just because it's huge, you know, is enjoyable
to someone else. So, I mean, whatever makes sense
to you is what's important. Yeah, exactly. And
I think as a musician, you tend to like small
clubs as well as big festivals. It's just different
atmospheres, but the feeling is very cool at
small clubs as well. Yeah, that's interesting.
We had a discussion recently with some of my
followers on Patreon where the American band
Journey has announced that they're going to be
retiring. And one of the first things that I
noticed was that they were playing in kind of
smaller venues for them. And one of my followers
in Ireland says, well, that's actually better.
because it'll be small and more intimate and
you'll be able to be close to the band. So it's
similar to what you're saying. Yeah. I remember
it's very, it's very long time ago when Metallica
was very moving up. I think maybe during the
black album period or something like that, they
played just as a surprise. They played in London
at the hundred club, you know, with like, it's
like four or 500 people. He just showed up and
played. It was probably one of the coolest gigs
they've ever done. It was very cool. And I saw
Metallica actually, for us it was, you know,
since it's an American band, I saw Metallica
in 1984 in a small theater in Stockholm. It was
like 900 people or something like that. Oh, wow.
And they were, you know, on the Ride the Lightning
tour. I mean. I think that's the best era, uh,
right. The lightning and master puppets when
it played in these smaller venues, uh, there's,
uh, you can say that it's more, it's more, you
know, the feeling is that you get closer to the
band. You hear, hear things a bit differently,
uh, in a positive way. Right. Um, speaking of
some of these classic bands, your new album,
Praise the Awakening in the press is being compared
to the New Testament and the new Coroner. How
does that make you feel? Totally awesome. Two
bands that are really cool from my opinion. And
Testament has always been a big influence on
us. Whether you like it or not, we sound a bit
like that. And Coroner is, we played with Coroner
down in Bulgaria in August. So we met those guys
and they were totally awesome live. Really, really
good. So when people compare us to bands like
that, we just get sort of a bit honored by that,
I think. Right. Cool. Okay. Where should people
go to keep up with the band? You know, do you
mean... On social medias or do you mean in a
live situation? Both. Well, our social media
is always updated because I personally take care
of that. So if you want to find out anything
about the band in any way, you must check out
our social medias, especially Instagram and Facebook.
When it comes to the live situation, we haven't
actually booked so much yet. We have a small
tour in Germany in April, I think. But as I said,
if you want to keep up with us, just follow the
social medias and you get every information that
you want, actually. Okay. And where can people
go to buy? um, embrace the awakening so that
it makes sure that you guys get the most amount
of money back from that sale. Uh, you can buy
it from a band shop actually from our homepage
is, it's like, it's Maslow dot black on, on the
internet. And then you, you just choose the shop
and they can buy everything, everything from
t -shirts to the records to, you know, everything
more or less. So that's the best thing to do
to support us. Excellent. Well, I want to thank
you for your time. I've been lucky enough to
interview some great thrash bands recently, and
I would put this album up there with... Some
of the ones that we've mentioned. If people don't
know the band, I hope that this interview will
help draw some people to the band. Thank you
very much. I love being here. Super. Excellent.
Well, I hope you have a great rest of your day.
Same to you. Take care. All right. See you. See
you. You can subscribe to the show on all your
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This concludes our show.