MESHUGGAH Guitarist Claims He Was Misquoted In Controversial Interview

Guitarist Mårten Hagström of Swedish experimental extreme metallers MESHUGGAH has issued a statement correcting some of the quotes that were attributed to him in an interview conducted by MetalSucks.net in New York City on February 19.

He says: "All right… I never thought I'd do this, but the way things have turned out, I really feel I have to correct some things in the MetalSucks interview I gave a while ago. These things happen every now and then, but the effects of this makes it imperative for me to set the record straight.

"Some things in there are incorrect (for different reasons),and that in itself wouldn't be problem unless it didn't really mess things up for me and others, which it has. And even though I have no qualms speaking my mind, it should at least be correct.

"First and most importantly: The part where Markus Staiger and Nuclear Blast is mentioned is incorrect. I never said those things, and as you can imagine, it feels really weird to stab your label and Markus in the back without even doing it, so to speak.

[In the original article, Mårten was quoted as saying about Nuclear Blast labelmates NIGHTWISH, "NIGHTWISH, they're from Finland; to call that metal is a fucking insult. It's probably good music, but it's not fucking metal. No way. I told Markus, on our label Nuclear Blast (because they're on it),'I know you're making a shitload of money, but you're making fools of yourself.' He's like, 'I know.' He's like that." — Ed.]

"Second: The whole 'melodic-metal' discussion really took place, but the things I was hating on was Schlager music (which was in there, but was spelled 'Slaughter' and the focus was turned to something entirely different) and talking about how that genre has seemingly crept over into some metal bands music in Europe (in my opinion) and that's it.

[In the original article, Mårten was quoted as saying about the melodic death metal movement from Sweden, "I hate it. I totally loathe it. Listen, I have nothing against the guys in the bands. I have nothing against the bands. I'm happy for them. If they're doing well and if that's what they want to do then fucking, 'Hey, good for you." If you're talking from my personal tastes, I prefer when bands play metal and not SLAUGHTER and pop music with fucking attributes of a metal band. You got two guys with distorted guitars and then you got two chicks singing and three keyboards and then they play 'lalalala.' It's not why I got into metal. It's not like I'm saying it can't be melodic. CYNIC is very melodic and still fucking awesome. There are a lot of bands that people appreciate a lot over here, like I said I'm happy for their success, but I do not care for their music at all. It's formula music. It's built the same way that pop music is. It's performed the same way pop music is with back tracks and everything. They're like, 'Oh, we're so fucking bad-ass and we look so hard.' Most bands from Sweden know what they're doing when they're playing. That's a great benefit. It might be music that I hate, but they can still pull it off, which is alright." — Ed.]

"The whole thing came out real weird and definitely skewed. The subject I was aiming for was left out and was replaced by something else, which is very unfortunate.

"And last, since I'm correcting errors, it says that I was praising a band called 'ADAGIO.' I don't know who they are. I was talking about the French band GOJIRA. That's that.

"I've talked to MetalSucks and they have been kind enough to correct these errors. I hope this clears up any misunderstandings there might be."