Natalie
nasum
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Nasum was a grindcore band from Örebro, Sweden.
The band was formed during the later part of 1992 by Anders Jakobson (guitar) and Rickard Alriksson (drums/vocals) as a sideproject to the death metal band Necrony. The idea was to create true grindcore in the vein of old Napalm Death.
Spring 1993: Necrony's homelabel, German Poserslaughter Records offered Nasum to share a 7" EP with Australian goregrinders Blood Duster. Nasum accepted the offer, but in time the record turned out to be a Nasum/Agathocles split-7" EP.
Two weeks before the first Nasum recording, another guitarist (Mieszko Talarczyk) was added. Together the band completed six tracks that were recorded at Unisound Studios in July 1993. The tracks were later released as the "Blind World" split-7" EP with Agathocles.
Awaiting the release of the EP, a tape with the songs were sent out to different labels with the intention to pick up more offers for EP:s etc. Nasum recieved two positive answers; one offering a split-7" EP with Psycho on their label Ax/ction Records, but also an opportunity to participate on the well-reputated Swedish hardcore comp-LP "Really Fast"'s 9th volume.
In November 1993 it was time for another trip to Unisound to record ten tracks; nine for the "Really Fast Vol 9" LP and one for Mieszko's comp-tape - "Corpse Flesh Genitals"' - second volume. Apparently, the track - entitled as the compilation - and the second volume ended up unreleased. The nine tracks (in all clocking 3.30!) contained a more grind/crust-inspired approach compaired to the grind/death kind of sound on the first recording, and the songs pointed out the future musical direction of Nasum.
While dealing with Ax/ction Records, Mieszko decided to start his own label - Grindwork Productions - with a friend. As the label's first release a four-way split-3" MCD was planned, including Nasum, Retaliation (Swe), Clotted Symmetric Sexual Organ (Jap) and Vivisection (Jap).
Eventually, Nasum yet again went to Unisound in September 1994, this time to record sixteen new tracks; eight which ended up on the "Smile When You're Dead" split-7" EP with Psycho and eight for the "Grindwork" split-3" MCD. On this recording the music took of where the preceding recording ended, but with a much heavier sound, changing the tuning from D to B.
Inspired by Sweden's Regurgitate the next event in Nasum history was to record a demo, after two split-7" EP:s and two compilations! With a possibility to make a recording for free in a local studio, ten songs were written in a rush, and together with two re-recordings from the first two recordings and two covers, the songs were recorded as the "Domedagen" demo in November 1994. Since the recording was made in co-operation with unexperienced students learning to be sound engineers, the sound turned out dark and muddy and obviously half of the new material turned out bad because of the rush.
After two and a half years it was finally time for a record of their own as Poserslaughter Records offered a MCD. In February 1995 Nasum went to Unisound for the last time to record eighteen songs; twelve brand new ones and six re-recordings of the best songs from the "Domedagen" demo. One different detail from the previous recording was that fifteen of the songs included Swedish lyrics, although Nasum used lyrics in their native language on three tracks on the demo. The title of the MCD was "Industrislaven".
In connection with the release of the MCD (September 1995), Poserslaughter invited Nasum to Berlin for a concert with labelmates Dead and Manos who released some records at the same time. Also a gig in southern Sweden were booked the day before. This led to some trouble as Rickard announced that he didn't want to do shows. Mieszko and Anders then got in touch with Per Karlsson (then a member of Suffer) who accepted the conditions for the "tour". So Nasum did their stage debute in Åstorp, Sweden, together with Kurbits I.R., Arsedestroyer and MENTALLY UNSTABLE, September 16th and then played in Berlin the day after with Dead and Manos.
This was the very end of Rickard's time in Nasum. He didn't share the same enthusiasm for the music and the lyrics as Mieszko and Anders, so he decided to quit. After an audition that didn't work out, Anders decided to take the empty place behind the drums leaving Mieszko alone with the strings.
In November 1996 it was time for the "new" Nasum to do their first recording. Twentyfour tracks were recorded - eight for "The Black Illusions" (a split-7" EP with Abstain released by Yellow Dog Records, Germany in 1998) and sixteen for Nasum's first full-7" EP - "World In Turmoil", released by Blurred Records, Japan. This mighty recording was made in Nasum's rehearsalplace on a 8-tracker with a friend behind the soundboard. Although the conditions, this became Nasum's most brutal and rawest production up to date. The line-up was: Mieszko - guitar/vocals and Anders - drums/bass/vocals.
June 1997, time for the seventh Nasum recording and this time 17 tracks were put on tape in Mieszko's own studio Soundlab. 16 tracks were recorded for an international grindcore/power violence compilation CD ("Regressive Hostility", released by Finnish Hostile Regression Records 1998). The seventeenth track was Discharge's "Vision Of War" recorded for a Scandinavian tribute to Discharge, released by Swedish Distortion Records a couple of years later. The complete recording was one of Nasum's best so far, hard hitting songs with a killer production.
A tape with the songs was sent to American Relapse Records who, according to themselves, were "psyched" and wanted to sign the band for a fullength album. Nasum accepted at once and worked hard the whole fall of 1997 with the songs for the album, and in December Nasum once again entered Soundlab Studios to record what would be the "Inhale/Exhale" album.
42 new songs were put on tape over a two month period, of which 38 ended up on the final product. Even harder and more varied than before, Nasum brought some new blood to the grindcore style. In connection with the 42 songs, Nasum recorded 4 cover songs that was released as a bonus 7" in the vinyl version of "Inhale/Exhale" by Distortion Records in the fall of 1999.
November 1998: Yet another visit to Soundlab Studios to record eight new tracks, four which were sent to Relapse to be used on compilations and eventually a split 7" EP with
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