Sterbhaus is a Stockholm/Sweden based outfit dealing in Metal bordering between Thrash, Black, Death, Heavy, Progressive........


..........Yeah....... Well, You all already hear where this is heading, right?

All these genres and labels and it's near impossible to describe what the band is about. Why not settle by describing Sterbhaus as honest (and we dare say it - real!) Metal that is timeless - neither retro or modern - with all the aforementioned subgenres tucked in there and spiced with a heavy dose of charm, humour topped with a spittingly fierce lyrical agenda., And since there are two many sublabels anyway - and since the world of Metal surely won't need yet another label, let's come up with a completely brand new one!! Just for the irony of it! Let's call all this Metal Deluxe.


Why not also - at least temporarily stray from the thought of whether Metal is diluted today or if the persuit of the orthodox (or the "trve") is legit ot not (meaning you just stick a pentagram in there somewhere and - voila! You're totally legit!). Sterbhaus climbed it's own solitary peak at least from the time of it's reformation into a quartet around 2012 - and had little interest in reinventing the wheel or trying to embark on new - by none other unexploited musical grounds. See, there is a particular and docile sadness in both those directions - as within them lurks the implication that it's not possible to create extremely relevant and over-the-top terrfic Metal the way the greats of the past and the pioneers of each genre were. Sterbhaus does their Metal completely devoid of these labels or restrictions. If you really love your Metal – chances are Sterbhaus is right up your alley. And if you like having a drink or two - that's probably even better


Sterbhaus have released two terrific full length albums, a Christmas EP and a Live album (the latter actually hit #1 in physical sales on the week of it’s release in Sweden!), as well as having toured Europe on several occasions, toured Chile, and have played prestigious festivals mainly in Germany (Rock Harz, Extremefest, Blastfest etc). If you’re unfamiliar with Sterbhaus then a good bet is that you’ll find the enormously entertaining music videos for which the band is quite known for quite the treat. The video for “Absolutely Do not Die” from 2014 is a true classic!

 

Sterbhaus consists today of Marcus Hammarström (previously Elvira Madigan, Shining), Jimmy Ahovalli and Erik Röjås (previosuly Ondskapt, Decadence etc). At this point in time the band is finishing up the coming third album which is set to most likely be the last – but it will be an ending like no other!


How about backtracking this whole thing? How about starting from the top and run through much of the bands history in one go? 

 

THE EARLY DAYS

 

2007-2011

 

Now it’s important to keep in mind when looking back that the Sterbhaus of the early days had quite little to do with what the band would grow and be reborn into at a later stage (by the time the first album came out). And this is pointed out not in malice or with ill will, but rather to make sure one keeps in mind that even humble beginnings can spawn truly great things, that eventually almost seem completely detached from whence it came. And it is not pointed out in shame - On the contrary! It’s impossible to not look at the early days with the fondest of memories. The band was a click of people who hung out constantly, shared the same jokes, laughed at the same stupid puns and partied whenever a chance was given (which probably was more or less constantly). So it’s not surprising that when the bond was so strong and the idiocy so tangible, it poured into everything that was Sterbhaus. Songtitles, lyrics, stage shows and even riffs all stemmed from poor inside jokes and a fantastically good time. And the band certainly didn’t need more in those early couple of years. Eventually- that bond made the band realize they had something others possibly just dream about having, and the inevitable evolution was set in motion.


So yes, Sterbhaus was spawned from rather modest aspirations in 2007. Even though the genres the band might belong to today are hard to define, it wasn’t really the case the first few years. The only idea in 2007 for Daniel Lungren (vocals), Niklas Skogqvist (drums) and Fredrik Hammar (guitar) was to start a band playing the Thrash/Death Metal of the Gothenburg scene and to have an additional band apart from the two-three bands they all respectively were part of at the same time where they could try out other instruments from what they were used to. Niklas Skogqvist for instance, had never really played drums before the first rehearsals with Sterbhaus. The line-up was completed with Robert Dunberg (guitar) and also with Marcus Hammarström (bass/additional vocals) who was new to the troupe and social setting and was at that time finishing up his fourth and last album with the one-man project Elvira Madigan. For Marcus the easy going attitude of this new act was just what was needed after having been couped up alone for a decade doing Avant-Garde artistic music.

 

The first Demo and "Hits for Dead Kids"

Sterbhaus soon recorded a first selftitled demo, replaced Fredrik Hammar with Simon Olovsson on guitar (as Simons wizardry in the field of riffs were greatly sought after - as well as his personality) and then recorded a full length demo album called “Hits for Dead Kids” in 2008 – both in studio Abyss with Tommy Tägtgren. The band was – as previously mentioned completely content at this point in time with the approach they had to not take anything (least of all themselves) too seriously and never shyed from putting up rather audacious, fairly ridiculous but enormously entertaining shows in the Stockholm area. Pulling larger and larger crowds along the way while mixing chili on stage to the song “Chiliconcarnage and the Tex Mexecution”, drinking wine from the neck of a headless infant doll to “Babies deserve to Die” (a song which incidently was penned musically by the only member who actually had a kid at the time), inviting people from the crowd up on stage for tea parties or throwing out Ice Cream Boats with a spread of goat cheese to the song “Goatboat”…. Well, suffice to say, there was a lot of weird things going on and it was all fantastically fun.


Funny side note: The image to the right shows Jimmys first stage performance with Sterbhaus months before he joined the band as lead guitarist .Jimmy was pulled up from the crowd (which in fact was planned) and had a pentagram tambourine shoved in his hand

Sterbhaus soon seriously started discussing upping the game a bit though, and it first started with the direction of the music as there were certain aspects of previous songs that needed to go – and we're not actually talking about the welcome spurts of Jazz, Country or Death ’ N ’ Roll that could and would infuse both songs and live shows for many years to come.


Even though the band got sent to the festival Metaltown (with lineup including Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Opeth among many others) after unknowingly having applied with “Hits for Dead Kids” for a demo contest held by Close-Up Magazine, Sterbhaus started cleaning up their act for the coming album wanting to leave the demo days behind. Prior to the Metaltown festival show Robert Dunberg was replaced with Jimmy Ahovalli as a first step to change, and this swap would show to eventually enabled the band to grow significantly regarding the level of playing. Jimmys entry also opened a door to – if not depart from, then at least evolve away from that Gothenburg Thrash/Death sound that some of the initial members had been hell bent on pursuing. This wasn’t obvious at the time but as Marcus and Jimmy started writing more material this was the way things were inevitably heading.


Shortly before the recording of “Hits for Dead Kids” Marcus Hammarström took on a management role for the band which led to a merch line being produced, elaborate websites being launched and later down the line also more prestigious shows being booked (including the formation of Sthlm Thrashfest which in essence became Sterbhaus own event as Sterbhaus were the only reocurring booking). Also, music videos were now being recorded as well and the importance of these videos for Sterbhaus can’t be stressed enough as it would become the perfect medium for the band for many years to come. At this time though, two songs got videos from the “Hits for Dead Kids” demo of which the video for the song “House of the Dead Dwarf” is the most noteworthy. It boldly sports the bands trade mark nonsensical humour in guise of sock puppets in shape of the band members in a low-budget innovative setting and it became an instant underground classic. Let’s face it – who can resist Sterbhaus as sock-puppets thrown into a nightmarish story?!


The “House of the Dead Dwarf” video was to be Marcus’ production debut as video maker as he was responsible for most of the whole affair (props, storyboard, visuals etc). The video even got the attention of a music journalist Mattias Kling of the largest Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet who made a feature of it in his blog. For Sterbhaus at this point – this was certainly a big deal.

Preproduction, accidents and line-up changes

During the years 2009-2010 while playing live as much as possible Sterbhaus simultaneously wrote the next batch of songs that would make out their coming debut album. In full agreement all members had decided to fiercely focus on more intense and original songs and to leave the naïve demo days behind, while at the same time holding true to that charm and originality that made the band so special. There is a certain nonsensical humour in all things Sterbhaus and up until then it had been overwhelming. It was still welcome at this time but it would come to show later on that even this ingredient would have to be toned down and/or changed somewhat as well.


This whole period of making what would become “Angels for Breakfast… And God for Lunch” would prove to radically alter the band both in lineup, image, music, lyrics and general approach – yeah, basically everything that a band is. And one of the most obvious events that sparked this and set it all in motion was a severe accident that actually put Jimmy Ahovallis career as guitarist in legitimate jeopardy. It all started at one of many preparties the band engaged in – this time at Halloween. Jimmy while dressed as Fred Flintstone had a chance accident involving a broken beer bottle in his hand falling down a set of stairs resulting in severing all tendons and nerves in his left ring finger. After surgery Jimmy was hurled into months of rehabilitation and this forced the band to postpone the already booked studio recording indefinitely. Jimmy was completely vital to the band at this point and there was no alternative.


However – as macabre as this might sound, this all proved to be a blessing in disguise and set in motion events that lead to the complete rebirth of Sterbhaus that is more akin to what the band represents today.

The hiatus Jimmys rehabilitation resulted in provided Jimmy and Marcus with a perfect opportunity to spend more time on the pre-production that was already under way, and during these sessions some very disturbing facts were suddenly evident. The first and most obvious one was that the lyrics and vocals of Daniel Lundgren was now completely out of place as the music had changed and evolved so much. Daniel had during these years of intense song writing and rehearsal been forced into a more passive and observing role as he had to take care of lyrics (of which he until this point was solely responsible for) and try them out only when the band had finished tinkering with arrangements – and this usually took forever. When the songs were finally finished written musically the band had heard very little with actual vocals apart from a few exceptions (such as “Insecticide” which at that time was called “Jürgendwarf” and had different lyrics than today) and if anything had been heard it had been through the murky haze of a rehearsal space. So no one had thought much about it until now.


The preproduction gave the band the chance to record some vocal try-outs, and it proved to be a mild shock for the instrumentalists… However - not for Daniel who performed much as he had wanted and intended to do. At the same time Daniel explained that he most likely would like to focus on one of his other bands Skitarg which was a band that took the nonsense Sterbhaus had and amplified it by about a million (or one could argue that Sterbhaus was for Daniel a heavily diminished version of Skitarg as it now had come to show that most of his song writing material and now also lyrics didn’t fit the bill in Sterbhaus and ended up in Skitarg).


So naturally Daniel quit. It was somewhat of a shock, although secretly everyone probably knew it was the only solution, and certainly the right move as Skitarg made it quite big in Sweden at about that time. Sterbhaus now had the terrific opportunity to explore much needed new grounds and could toss aside some aspects of the bands image that up until then had been a representation of Daniel, and to do it in good conscience.

But things didn’t end here...


Due to Jimmys accident Sterbhaus couldn’t rehearse. The momentum the band had built up was something especially Marcus didn’t want to lose. So the solution was that the band focused on the blogging they had recently started and doing basically anything to try to remain as much in the lime light as possible. One can’t really say “social media” here because the social media expression culture of today

wasn’t as developed back then as it is now. MySpace was the main

forum (MySpace that is sorely missed btw!) and blogs.


At this time Niklas Skogqvists interests in life changed rather abruptly and unexpectedly as he now wanted to focus on family life in stark opposition to his many years of devotion trying to pursue music with Sterbhaus among other bands (Niklas was an accomplished songwriter and guitarist). He also expressed annoyance with the blog and by choice drifted socially further from the remaining members after Daniel had quit. And when a new date for recording the album was finally set – he failed to show up for rehearsals, preparations etc which led especially Jimmy and Marcus to worry whether he would pull off recording the album at all, and also whether he would actually show up to do it. This suspicion was so well founded that Marcus even ensured a replacement in Erik Röjås in case Niklas decided to opt out. And as suspected, Niklas quit five weeks prior to the band entering studio Abyss. 


Having Niklas quitting Sterbhaus...

...might not have come as a great surprise when it did (albeit a bit too close to the booked studio time for comfort) but much as with the sudden change of vocalist it turned out to be an extremely positive turn for the band.


For although Erik Röjås – who at this time only agreed to do the studio sessions and not joining the band, only had five weeks to learn the twelve now rather elaborate songs (of which the complexity and change in direction he humorously enough was completely unaware of when accepting to step in) he totally crushed it in the studio and delivered drums that Niklas just wasn’t capable of. Erik Röjås is not only an obvious hard hitting talent behind the kit but also a drummer by trade - which Niklas had not been, as he only fiddled with drums by the time Sterbhaus was formed.


Erik could pick up the many fast changes and ideas Jimmy and Marcus might have on the spot in the studio and he was given fairly free reigns on top of that which gave the songs new life and an energy that just wasn’t there before.




During the spring of 2011... after Daniel had quit Sterbhaus was effectively without vocalist and held auditions. Simon and Jimmy both maintained the view that the only real alternative that would work, fit and slay together with the new songs would be that Marcus handled the vocal duties as well. But Marcus himself was reluctant at first. However, no auditions up until then had provided any real promise for what the band was looking for.


Since Marcus had rewritten most of the lyrics Daniel wrote to fit the songs better it had the obvious side effect that Marcus own vocals was more of a natural fit. But Marcus extended position in the band wouldn’t be either solidified internally or made public until the band was actually recording in the summer of 2011. After having tracked just a few lines the band posted on their blog (actually a studio-blog at this point) that this change was official. Most had probably already guessed it though.


One could probably argue that this summer is the most obvious point in time for Sterbhaus to turn the page.


2011-2014

 

Recording the debut album and getting to know Germany

THE REINVENTION OF STERBHAUS

 

Marcus, Jimmy and Erik got in their cars on the 8th of May 2011 and travelled up to Tommy Tägtgrens studio Abyss B to record “Angels for Breakfast… and God for Lunch” (actually named after a song from the first Sterbhaus demo). Simon tagged along later on. The album was being recorded by the band themselves and was scheduled for mixing by Jonas Kjellgren once finished. And finished it was – after a first run of three straight weeks and another two unscheduled additional weeks spread out during several 3-4 day weekends when Jimmy and Marcus went back and forth to finish guitars, bass and vocals.

The remaining line-up by the time "Angels for Breackfast ....And God for Lunch" was recorded. From the top left: Simon Olovsson, Jimmy Ahovalli, Marcus Hammarström

People who run studios and mix albums deal with all sorts of characters who either do a half assed job because they haven’t practiced enough or because they’re probably drunk off their feet most of the time while recording. Marcus recalls:


“Jonas Kjellgren - whom we had never met prior to this, told us rather uncouthly on the very first day that we’d better play tight and well or he wouldn’t mix it. At the end of the second day recording guitars we needed help sorting some issue with the software while recording “Absolutely Do Not Die”. Sitting at the mixing desk listening - He soon forgot the issue he was there to fix and instead muttered to himself (although loud enough for us to hear) “Damn… This is some bad ass Megadeth riffing …”. And it was tight… tight as a nuns sphincter. From then on he popped in every now and then because he really just wanted to hear more of what we did… Because he liked it. That was high praise. And that was a first hint that we were on the right path – finally. We had busted our hides reinventing the band for two years, just lost two members prior to recording, postponed recording once due to injury and Jimmys rehabilitation was still an ongoing thing. And we all heard that what we put on tape was just something spectacular compared to what the band had done officially up until then. Something we honestly thought sounded bloody great”.

By this time – due to Marcus having started a mini gig/festival of sorts called Sthlm Thrashfest, Sterbhaus established a working relationship with a German promoter and an agency aptly named Metal-Promotions based in Bremen. As Sterbhaus was completely unsigned and the new album was finished mixed the object was to start courting labels to land a deal to have the album properly released. On advice from Metal-Promotion the courting was to be put on hold a bit in order to focus on rubbing the German scene the right way to create a buzz of sorts. That meant promoting and playing live as much as possible so that once labels were interested – the dialog would be more advantageous for the band. Sterbhaus were completely unknown in Germany and the outlook on attracting a label at this point was deemed almost impossible – with or without an awesome first album under the belt. So the promotion wheel started turning and Metal-Promotions got Sterbhaus their first proper festival bookings in Germany kicking off with “Way of Darkness” (alongside Morgoth, Sodom, Benediction, Entombed etc) in October 2011.


Although this was an extremely exciting time – it was also enormously frustrating....


One have to remember that a reinvented Sterbhaus totally killing it live with an awesome setlist of mostly new unheard songs – only had a mediocre demo album in the form of “Hits for Dead Kids” in the merch stalls, on the shelves and on the web. No videos of any new songs or even snippets were available as it wouldn’t be a good idea to release anything if a label was to release it officially later on. And the demo album one could get ones hands on sounded very little like the band that was active by this time playing live shows to larger and larger crowds who all took notice… went to the stalls to buy a smoking hot Sterbhaus album… but yeah; only got an irrelevant demo.

South America 2012

During this (frustrating) period in time Sterbhaus travelled to tour Chile in South America on the invitation of local act Breakdown. Departing an unusually cold Sweden in January of 2012 for a summer season on the other side of the equator and eight blistering shows in front of notoriously insane South American crowds – was of course an experience of a lifetime.

Shown above: The line-up that toured Chile in 2012. From top left: Marcus Hammarström, Jimmy Ahovalli, Victor Bingselius, Simon Olovsson. 

This journey across the world provided the band with a unique opportunity as an unsigned act to record a video for “Insecticide” with famed local high-end video producer Carlos Toro who is responsible for video productions with Rob Halford, Helloween, Therion to count a few. The video was filmed at an old abandoned slaughterhouse where the band also made a terrific photo shoot (courtesy of Ricardo Toledo).


Upon returning home to Sweden again the focus was then of course on getting the album out – with or without interest from labels. Not only did the band have an awesome album just lying in wait – but now also a visual monster in form of this new video to go with it!

"Angels for Breakfast ...and God for Lunch" and Touring Europe

After almost a year of activities there were actually very little interest from the industry. This was during a period where labels in general were struggling immensely due to downloading taking expected revenue from album sales (streaming was not really a thing yet –though streaming never really offered extensive wealth for anyone except the technical platforms that provide them, not when it came, and not today). Not even the older label channels having released Marcus´ previous entity “Elvira Madigan” bothered.


The solution was to finally release “Angels for Breakfast… And God for Lunch” through Marcus’ own label Killhead in collaboration with Black Lodge and Sound Pollution Distribution. There just wasn’t any point in prolonging the wait.

With the terrific new video recorded in Chile (a consciously humourless offering – an effort to officially provide an obvious breaking point between the old and the new Sterbhaus) released on July the 1st 2012 the album “Angels for Breakfast …And God for Lunch” finally hit the stores on the 24th of August that same year.

The band kicked into high gear and played more festivals such as Rock Harz, Extremefest, Blastfest and soon embarked on two significant European tours during 2013.


Being four bands sharing a bus (having some actually sleeping in the hallway – during this trip, for either an obvious or an inexplicable reason that task fell on the largest dude in the whole company) can easily spell disaster. Those having done tours for extensive periods can vouch for this. They can probably also vouch for how things can turn out to be the exact opposite and indescribably terrific when the chemistry onboard between all acts just works on all levels. For Sterbhaus first European tour ever the case would definitely be the latter. Ashmedi of Melechesh (the band Sterbhaus probably hit it off best with) was open with the fact that this was an unusually sweet run and that Sterbhaus shouldn’t expect every tour to be like this.


Marcus would find this out first hand when touring outside Sterbhaus later on, while Sterbhaus as a band would not. For the second tour for 2013 was in support of the Swedish extreme act Shining (the band Marcus would actually later join) and it would turn out to be yet another ridiculously terrific trip, this time focusing more on Western Europe (in contrary to the previous run with Vader and Melechesh – as well as WILD btw, that had been travelling through most of Eastern Europe).

 

Although rumoured already before the start to most likely be a disastrous run partly because of how people perceived Sterbhaus and Shining to be on opposite ends when it came to image, approach and subsequently crowds, This preconcieved idea would ofc be proven completely wrong – as Sterbhaus in most any situation were more than capable of being a focal point of a good time (during one of the bands largest festival shows at Rock Harz for instance – Sterbhaus refused to close shop, and ended up helping the staff of the festival drain the last drops from the kegs to a spontaneous shout out: “You are so f*cking good at making party!!!”). Even from the moment of the first glass of wine at the Berlin airport between some members of both bands it was obvious it would be no issue what so ever, (as a common weird sense of humour goes a long way).


The Norwegian act Crest of Darkness would later drop out halfway thru this tour but Shining and Sterbhaus was a formidable force and ended the run in a rainy Glasgow in December 2013... But not before sowing seeds of absolute great importance for the future of Sterbhaus.


Aside from the fact that this tour partly led to Marcus later joining Shining as bass player, this tours most prominent aftermath was to be the fateful meeting with film-maker Martin Strandberg – who was working on the Shining documentary at this time. This enormously fruitful and strong friendship that still lasts to today would prove to be absolutely essential for Sterbhaus the coming years. And it would start just a few months after returning home, with a video….

By this time Sterbhaus had had a somewhat revolving drummer situation but soon found their man in Peter Lindqvist (now also known for his involvement in Kall and Lifelover among others). He was an absolutely perfect fit for the band and as Sterbhaus embarked on the first European tour supporting Vader and Melechesh in the spring of 2013 the four piece was as tight and hot as ever. In fact, half way thru that run the crew of Massive Music officially declared Sterbhaus to be a terrific “fluff-act”… Meaning - as a support act, the band did a stellar job in whipping up excitement for the next band on the bill – being Melechesh, who then had the thankful task of going on stage in front of a crowd that was already riled up.

"Forgboiler" and "Absolutely Do Not Die!"

For the album “Angels for Breakfast… And God for Lunch” three videos were made. The first being for “Insecticide” and the second for the song “Frogboler”. The “Frogboiler” video had been released at pentecost prior to the tours and was a terrific take on a dinner party with one gag per served meal/member by a dubious character (later dubbed “Hellvis” through a naming contest) while the whole set itself was controlled by some sort of clock or contraption that governed reality.

Although the video was quite a hilarious and tasty offering it had actually been a rather arduous affair to film and produce as the film/production team (which incidentally also had been responsible for the successful “House of the Dead Dwarf” video as well as the very first video for the song “Sinister Neckgrip”) just didn’t seem to have the heart or interest in doing this production at the time. And in some aspects – when viewing the video today, it is fairly obvious in the storytelling towards the ending – which fell short compared to the initial vision. Budget and time restraints were obvious limiting factors as well. The furry goat-guitar creature in the end - aptly named “Hellmut the Goatard” (which actually made it on stage on a couple of occasions as it is fully playable) for instance, was supposed to have quite a more obvious purpose.


Needless to say,, the experience left the band uncertain on how a third video could be produced and released. Martin Strandbergs entrance into the folds of Sterbhaus as a video creator was just awesomely timed.


The third video and the debut with Martin Strandberg would be for the song “Absolutely Do Not Die!”. The band was more or less accidently given access to filming equipment which were being pilot-tested and weren't available on the market yet, which enable shots not otherwise possible. But the obvious game changer compared to previous video productions was ofc the extraordinary talents of Martin Strandberg.... And the result pretty much speaks for itself.


The video kicks off with a character that was actually first introduced in the previous video “Frogboiler” (this would be the little old Metal grandma Hellga) who - supposedly like most old ladies are, is busy feeding the birds in the autum of her years. For birds seeds equals drugs (apparently) so within short she gets assaulted by these three birdlike characters (the band ofc) and the basic story then revolves around these three (later: four) trying to score more seeds before hitting Stockholm to cause a ruckus.


A focal point was to have a Stockholm setting that focused on certain environments important to especially the Death Metal (or general Metal) scene of the capitol (hence the location of the cross at Skogskyrkogården – world renowned due to the classic band photo of Entombed from their “Left Hand Path” album), as well as capitalizing on locations more or less controversially being demolished in Stockholm at the time. 

The video became an instant classic upon its release and just sky rocketed in number of views within a short time. and it was a perfect way to end a terrific run for a debut album that had reaped overwhelmingly great reviews and even nominations (album of the year, best artwork, video of the year etc) of which some had actually been won. It all put Sterbhaus in a great mood for focusing on the next album. And alongside the pre-prod etc the band and management outlined a very ambitious promotion plan leaning heavily on continue touring… since it was obvious that touring and playing live was the strength of the quartet.

Part Two coming soon.... (2014-present)

Photographer credits:

Sandra Thulin

Viktoria Popova

Soile Siirtola

Ricardo Toledo

Emely Vollertzen