“In 1987, Roger Karmanik – a veteran musician of the Swedish industrial scene – founded Cold Meat Industry. Over the next decade, the label grew from a bedroom passion project into a world-renowned record company. Whilst CMI grew exponentially, Karmanik’s underground mindset and work methods remained largely unchanged. Plagued by setbacks in both his personal and professional life – as well as deteriorating mental health – Roger Karmanik eventually hit a wall. CMI was declared bankrupt in 2011. Then, thirty years after its conception, people from over 40 different countries gathered in Stockholm to celebrate the label’s anniversary – and something unexpected ensued.”
Grymt bra jobbat av Claudio (Marino) och andra inblandade. Dokumentären var ruskigt bra och intressant även för dom som inte var där när det begav sig (som jag). Visste inte så mycket om denna scen förräns jag hamnade på Cold Meat 30 års kalas 2017. Mortiis kände jag nog till och var ett stort fan av Karjalan Sissit från Eskilstuna men det var det, typ.
Förutom Roger K. själv och Claudio så är det en hel del intressanta inblandade som har jobbat med detta projekt som Vlad (Death Disco), Bardo Methodology Niklas och Mattias Indy Pettersson. Dom syns inte mer än i credsen (vad jag minns) men har en stor betydelse för produktionen. M. från MGLA och Erik WATAIN dyker upp i intervjuerna tillsammans med en massa CMI artister. Själv har jag bidragit med några foton inbakade här och var i filmen. Efter visningen blev det Q & A på scenen med Ika Johannesson som frågade ut Claudio & Roger.
One of the finest, kindest, humblest, funniest guys on the planet left us. Hard to even imagine things getting back to normal and he won´t be around, on stage and at the venues. Sometimes this world sucks too much.
“I will never die, it will never die”
A weekend in Reykjavik with Håvard E. for a MORTIIS photo shoot on friday and the Reykjavik Goth Night at Gaukurinn on Saturday.
We got some obstacles and restrictions (lights, weather, temperature etc etc xD), but we had the most awesome help from Tómas (Misþyrming) and Anna (NYIÞ), who drove us around and assisted when needed:) (They are also featured in my Icelandic saga The Troll:))). We worked with what we got and I think we did alright. What a fantastic country, though!!!
The night before the shoot was stormy with downpour ( couldn´t go outside on the terrace for a smoke because I was afraid that the winds would rip the door right off xD ) and that continued in the morning when our friends came to pick us up. So we made the decision to start with the cave pictures. Great with shelter when it was raining. Just that the cave floor was covered in some mud that was behaving in different ways. Either it was very slippery or just got you glued to the ground. Also it was constantly dripping ice cold water from above. Very interesting.
Luckily the raining slowed down a bit in awhile so we stayed at the cave but got some nice pics right outside. I´m not at all sure where we were at but it looked a bit like Mariuhellar when sorting out the pictures. Not too far from Reykjavik.
Next stop was (need to check the name of the location) a bit further out from town. Stunning views along the way , took some pics on a beach with mountains all around it and ended up somewhere with hot mud pools and steaming activity.
We drove around all over the place, stopped here and there for some (quick) pictures. Like at the lava fields. Absolutely amazing!! Always quick because Håvard/Mortiis outfit wasn´t really made for the brutal cold and harsh conditions that Iceland offers in November. Whatever ideas and experiments we had in mind, we had to skip. A couple of minutes of straight up shooting and then Håvard had to get some time to warm up in the car. Blue was not his best skin tone so we needed to keep him at least slightly normal coloured. It was really, really cold even when you were properly dressed:/
En kväll + heldag mitt i naturen utanför Enköping. Vi fick ihop både studiopics och en hel massa ute i skogarna. Egentligen fanns det bara behov av diverse promos eftersom layouten för plattan var redan klar, men baksidan av omslaget blev bytt innan tryck till grafik gjord på ett av bilderna. Studiopicsen tog vi på kvällen och tidigt som fan på morgonen drog vi till skogs för omgång 1. Snabb lunch och ut igen för en runda till innan det blev mörkt. Effektivt och produktivt bland svamp och mossa med viss assistans av J & S:))
Promos for Jonathans album “Chants From Another Place”. Shot in the countryside and forests outside Enköping. Starting out with some studio pics. One of the forest pictures was turned into graphic art (by Jonathan) for the back cover of the album.
[Promo / album (Originalphoto for back cover artwork) Sept. 2019. Enköping “Chants From Another Place” release in March 2020] J.H. Facebook All photos Copyright (C) Soile Siirtola – extremmetal.se. Not to be used without permission.
“Chants From Another Place”
Label: Kscope – KSCOPE1052 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album Released: Mar 13, 2020
[Promo / album (Originalphoto for back cover artwork) Sept. 2019. Enköping “Chants From Another Place” release in March 2020] J.H. Facebook All photos Copyright (C) Soile Siirtola – extremmetal.se. Not to be used without permission.
This is my friend Du X., who owns the awesomest vintage clothing shop on Gulou Dongdajie in Beijing. Had a portrait shoot with him one morning before he opened the shop att 11AM.
Metalhead to the core (partly a sucky kind of melofolkdeath taste, but we do agree on many bands. Bathory, Motörhead and so on;) and a collector of all kinds of cool & creepy stuff. Like authentic kapala´s, shrunken heads, Navajo art and also all kinds of old tribal/ritual/sacrificial items from all over.
We were about to do one more shoot before I left Beijing for good for some weeks ago, but it didn´t happen. have to plan for it when I go and visit at some point. There have been some big changes going on in Beijing ever since I moved there May last year and they are far from done yet. Gulou Dongdajie is one of the most popular streets in town and the changes were about to happen there also. Big time. So no one really knows what´s going to happen. Du´s shop is still there for now at least. I´m keeping an eye on my old hood;)
Most of the collected items are not for sale, but they are all over the place, so even if you´re not into getting some nice garments, you can always pop in just to see all the other stuff.
So be sure to pay him a visit if you ever go to Beijing!!:)
Some pictures for staff of the new club Püssy A Go Go. The first time I met them at Debaser Slussen, Stockholm (In Solitude + Reveal gig)
Later Lisa and Alexandra got an own place in The Liffeys basement in Old Town and had some legendary years there. Many of the best gigs I´ve ever seen was at that place. Or Nalen Klubb, the main Nalen and a couple of other places they used for some specific gigs @ events.
The unofficial opening for the basement was with Fester (swe), General Surgery + Nirvana 2002 the 4th of August 2012. The were still some job to do at the venue but the sound worked so all good:)) P.A.G.G. later evolved to Tänk På Döden, Black Harvest and Bored To Death Bookings and continued to be responsible for shitloads of great events.
For a long time ago me and the great Sinister artist Carlos (Aguilar) started talking about a photo shoot for BLACK SHADOWS TATTOOS, and finally we made it happen. After a long & nice day in Uppsala we ended up with shitloads of really cool portraits. Also big thanks to Akilles the DevilDog and the 2 Mauri´s for assistance and company:)
Carlos have tattooed many of the greatest bands in extreme metal (SLAYER, KREATOR, NILE, DISSECTION, DESTRUCTION, KRISIUN, DIMMU BORGIR, EXODUS, LOCK UP, VADER… and many more cool bands and musicians.) So of course I also have a tattoo made by him. Pic below. (I love it!!:) B/W, freehand and done in less than 2 hrs.)
I met up with the guys in the re-united Desultory for a couple of hours down in the bunker.
They´re now signed on (at??) the Pulverised label and they needed some promos. A new album will soon be in the making.
“In 1987, Roger Karmanik – a veteran musician of the Swedish industrial scene – founded Cold Meat Industry. Over the next decade, the label grew from a bedroom passion project into a world-renowned record company. Whilst CMI grew exponentially, Karmanik’s underground mindset and work methods remained largely unchanged. Plagued by setbacks in both his personal and professional life – as well as deteriorating mental health – Roger Karmanik eventually hit a wall. CMI was declared bankrupt in 2011. Then, thirty years after its conception, people from over 40 different countries gathered in Stockholm to celebrate the label’s anniversary – and something unexpected ensued.”
A weekend in Reykjavik with Håvard E. for a MORTIIS photo shoot on friday and the 
This is my friend Du X., who owns the awesomest vintage clothing shop on Gulou Dongdajie in Beijing. Had a portrait shoot with him one morning before he opened the shop att 11AM.
Some pictures for staff of the new club Püssy A Go Go. The first time I met them at Debaser Slussen, Stockholm (In Solitude + Reveal gig)
For a long time ago me and the great Sinister artist Carlos (Aguilar) started talking about a photo shoot for BLACK SHADOWS TATTOOS, and finally we made it happen. After a long & nice day in Uppsala we ended up with shitloads of really cool portraits. Also big thanks to Akilles the DevilDog and the 2 Mauri´s for assistance and company:)
