A label that seems to be developing with several interesting bands under its wings. Also the professional aspect of their business is growing which surely is great. Label boss Malicious answered the interview.

Let´s start from the beginning with a standard question. When was the label started, and why? Are you the only individual responsible for this label?
- The label was born in ´92. My distribution I have since ´90. The label was kind of a division of my distribution as I wanted to release and produce releases myself. At the time the label started I was the only individual working for it. Now I have two other persons who are helping me as the work is growing immensely.

What has been your releases up till now?
- My releases so far has been : Vond - debut EP, sold out. Strid - debut EP, almost sold out. Mortiis - Født til å herske CD/LP. Zyklon-B - Blood must be shed mCD/mLP. Vond - Selvmord CD.

Have all your releases been accepted the way you think they deserve? Any release that has been underestimated?
- Well, a bit hard to answer. I think all gone its normal way. But you know as a label you stand fullhearted behind your releases and they seem to be more attractive for you than others, then it can happen that you sometimes get the feeling some releases have been underestimated when they didn´t get the attention you self think they should, but as I said, I think all went the normal way till now.

There is a lot of work in connection with running a label. Does this mean you are a very busy man? Are you able to make a living out of Malicious Records?
- Indeed, I´m a very busy man. The distribution network takes a hell of time away. I also have a big wholesale distribution and sell a lot of stuff from instance of Necromantic Gallery, Fullmoon, H.N.F., Avantgarde, CMI etc. largely and then I have my label, also doing still a normal fucker job. Sometimes we are more than overworked. We could already now live of what we have created but we are not sure if we want that. Problems could occur of that.

What are your ambitions with this label? Have the ambitions changed during the years?
Well, to say it simply and direct, we want to release bastardically great art. This ambition have not changed through the years nor it will in the future. I live the Black metal in its good old way, I suppose I have a faible for what is worse to release and not.

The distribution network is an essential part of a label with ambitions. Are you pleased with your sales and distributors?
Yes, so far we are pleased with our sales and distributors. The Mortiis album for instance is out since a couple of months and have reached the 5000 copies. This is not bad for a pure synthesiser release. We can increase our sales of course with metal acts. We have all important distributors we need for our releases.

I see that House of Kicks are distributing the first Mortiis album. Are you happy with them?
- House of Kicks is one of our main distributors. We also get a better deal with them. They could have done a bit more with the Mortiis album, but I think this will change with our coming releases.

If you had the opportunity to sign either Deicide or Morbid Angel what would you have responded? Do you like any of these two groups?
- I like Morbid Angel in their old form, nothing more or less. I would surely have signed them then, but nowadays there are in my opinion much more classically bands around we have to concentrate on.

In today's over populated music market, what exactly does it take for a band to be signed with Malicious Records?
- Also this question is really simple to answer. First we must like the stuff, it must give us something. We do not release something we think it could sell. Then we have to identify us a bit what the band wants to bring through their lyrics and then third we try to build up a relationship between us and the band. When all this is given then nothing can hold back a deal.

Is there any bands you have recently signed on your label, or are you concentrating on the bands you already have?
- Yes, we signed some more bands. First the Norwegian band Strid didn´t broke up like seemingly most of the persons thought, they have signed with Malicious Records. Then we have signed Dødheimsgard for at least two albums. But yet we hope there is even more to come. Sileaxter is as well on Malicious Records and their cassette and single should occur this year. Also we hardly try to make things definitely with Norwegian Gorgoroth. Yet nothing is signed, but as we already are talking about tours and other things it is most likely they sign to us.

What is so special about Sileaxter that will not make them drown among all the other bands?
- Well, first I don´t wanna cry out too much. The thing with this band is that they are existing since ´88. And the songs sounds so old and raw. What I think is so special with that band is that they have the potential to write songs and melodies which simply integrates in your head and actually not many bands are able to reach that. They simply have the faible to make fast forward played songs, simple, destructive, but still with unique melodies. But wait until it is done, and then draw your own picture about them.

Do you want Malicious Records to grow bigger? What will you do to succeed in that?
- Well, Malicious is growing and we try to mark away weak parts in our system and if it continues like that, Malicious will of course grow. Well, to succeed even more we will probably take more attention from now on in promotion as that was the missing part in the past.

My impression is that the German black metal "scene" is quite big, but yet not a classy band has popped up so far. What is the reason for this, or don´t you agree?
- Yes, you are quite right. The German scene is nowadays filled up with more than enough bands. Compared to the good old times where bands like Poison, Destruction, Kreator, Sodom, Angel Kill and others reigned it is a shame for us to see what we can present nowadays. In Germany there are too less real individuals who are capable to create something great from their own mind. A lot of the bands look up to big bands and try to imitate. There is a band called Deseater who may have the potential to create something great but also they have been pushed a bit. We will see. At least I hope that with Sileaxter the picture change.

Is there a main band, or release, you are pushing harder than the others?
- Well, as earlier said in the interview, I have my distributors and I offer them all my releases. I put the same money, time and work in each of my releases so I won´t say we are pushing a certain release. Of course things changed into positive ways in the last time and we have now more possibilities to give our bands the chances to reach more people. But as said, we are not pushing a certain release.

Do you think that you one day will be able to organise tours and videos for your groups? If you had the opportunity to show a video with one of the bands on your label on MTV, would you have done it?
- I´m already working on a tour with Gorgoroth down here in Germany for about 10 gigs. We are able to organise tours if a band wants to play live. We could do clips from our bands as well. We already thought about that and had some talks but we are really not interested in overdoing things, this depends on the bands. About the MTV thing. Well, if one of my bands want to have a clip there - which I have doubts of - I would not say no although it would be irritating.

What could we expect from you during the second half 1995? - You can expect this year: Dødheimsgard - Kronet til konge CD/LP. Strid - full CD/LP. Gorgoroth - Død CD/LP. Sileaxter cassette/EP. As well as shirts and sleeves from each band. We have other things going on, but so far nothing is signed. But we promise more will follow.





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