Various ‎– Swedish / Philippinian HC Delirium Tremens – DT 016 – 1990 – Cassette ♬ Side Sweden MP3 320 kbps ♬ Side Philippines MP3 320 kbps

Marko Orava was one of the most persistent guys in the compilation tape “business” in Sweden. Between 1985 and 1993 Delirium Tremens put out 30 tapes. Not dealing with tapes he was involved in the fanzine with the same name.

So Marko, how did all of this start?

Marko – Well was born in 1968 in Northern Finland, but moved to Mölndal (South of Gothenburg) with my parents when I was just a kid. Later I moved later to Northern Sweden. Delirium Tremens was started as a fanzine by three guys back 1981. I got involved around 1984 and added the tape label the year after. As we had a zine we got a lot of tapes from bands and I got tapes at gigs or through mail order as well. As the tapes piled up I thought it was a great idea to give it a larger audience putting this stuff on apes made sense.

How many tapes did you make?

Marko – I issued 30 different tapes. I took the two to three songs by each band that I liked. I basically packed a master tape which as many songs as possible. From there I stared to make copies. I had one of those tape machines you could copy with double speed, but it took a hell of a time. In a period of time it felt like the only thing I did was to copy tapes. I designed and xeroxed the inlay myself. The stickers on the tape shells came from the same source that supplied the tapes. To make the inlays look nice I used a type writer to write the title – on each one. That took a while as well. All in all, I made 6,000 copies which is approximately 200 copies of each release. If i might guess each of these tapes got copied a few time to the distribution was quite large, ha ha!! The best-selling tape was possible Vrävaran! I sold the tapes through mail order but I used them to trade a lot of tapes, zines or records. Also, as some people did not have cash, I actually gave away a lot of tapes.

And at some point it came to and end?

Marko – Well, it was not a decision … got kids, started to refurbish a house and all of that adult stuff. So there were less time to write letter and by so, less tapes arrived. D.T was part of my life and life changed….

This tape is a compilation with Swedish bands of side A and Pilipino bands on side B. First out on side Sweden is G-anx from Jönköping, Sweden, with Clouds of Cancers, a song that appeared on their third EP “Masterpiece“. Next band up is F.Z.Ö or Fult Zombie Öra – translation “Ugly Zombie Ear from Finspång. The band put out an EP in 1991 as well. Finspång is a small “city” but had a lot of bands at the time. In the early 90 many musicians from the hardcore scene made the transition to death metal or even black metal. The tiny Finspång almost became the death metal city under the leadership of Daniel Swanö (Edge of sanity etc). Continuing on the topic of “transition from hardcore to metal”; Vansinne – translation “Insanity” – hailed from Vålberg in the Värmland region. A young Ola Sjöberg was in that band and I guess he is more known for the metalheads as the guitarist in the excellent-plus death metal act God Macabre / Macabre End. So we had to ask Ola a few questions:

So Ola – what the story with Vansinne on D.T. 16?

Ola – Huh you find that tape? A kind of an embarrassing recording, it was very early in our “career” I would say. It was anything but tight and with the worst käng-solo on the planet. To my defense we became better after a while. The songs appeared on the Delirium Tremens compilation and a few others (Brutal tapes, editor’s note). The band actually started as Grodpiss – translation “frog-piss – a name we later also used for our fanzine.

Was this recording ever released as a proper demo?

Ola – No, it was a 3 track porta-studio recording. We called it “Ansiktslösa Människor”´ but we never bother to release it as a proper demo with a sleeve and such. There are images on internet of a sleeve but that was made years later as the recording was uploaded on Youtube.

Next band up on this tape might be the most well-known (in competition with G-anx). Anti-Bofors from Nyköping later morphed into Disfear. Here Anti-Bofors appear with 3 songs including a mandatory Mob-47 cover of Dom Ljuger. The band made a 7-inch as Anti-Bofors, a record that seems to be only many collectors wantlist.

After Anti-Bofos is is Moses. An observant reader of the inlay will notice that the address is to a Morgan Håkansson in Norrköping. This is the same Morgan that later formed the long-standing black metal act Marduk , and currently the only original member of the same band. Moses the made one demo as well which we here at the site would love to get our hands on.

The last Swedish band Benjamin Fikus is a pun which I guess is hard to translate. They were from the outskirts of Uppsala and guitarist Niklas ”Snillen” Pettersson was nice to respond on a few questions.

So Snillen, tell us the story about the band!

Snillen – First I would like to say that it was 25 ago we had this band so all the facts might not be 100% correct, it my truth as I remember it. The band Benjamin Fikus was formed around 1988 – 1989 in Northern Uppland (the village of Skärplinge). The line-up was me, Niklas ”Snillen” Pettersson on guitar, Patrik ”Pege” Gustavsson also guitar, Tomas ”Pinnen” Eriksson on bass and Patrik ”Ågren” Ågren on drums. As we formed the band we were shopping around for instruments (none of could play at all in the beginning), Ågren decided to quit so I decided to try to play the drums. The name of the band came quite natural when we bought instrument on mail order (Hobbex); Pinnen got a plastic Benjamin Fikus (a kind of plant) delivered instead off a bass, ha ha – band name settled. With this line-up we started (or rather tried) to make music. I was also vocalist. However our skills were anything but great – we make simple songs mainly influenced by the Swedish punk acts at the time. Of course we wanted to evolve into a major metal and like Sodom and Anthrax. High aspirations!!!

Is the recording on D.T. 16 from a proper demo?

Snillen – Yes, we borrowed a 4 channel “porta-studio” and recorded our first official demo – “Ultrahits- 89 – a terrible tape with some songs of our own and some covers. We had a little bit of metal sound then and the lyrics were in English. We recorded a second demo that was never intended to be an official release, but some songs appeared some a few compilations. Here it clear that we had more of a punk sound, but it would be bold to state that the tape is even close to great. Around 1989 – 1990 we added Jonas Englund on guitar. He actually could play (sic!) and we started to play faster. American bands like S.O.D., D.R.I and Suicidal Tendencies was our main influences at the time. We recorded a third tape on some primitive recording equipment. It was never released as a proper demo. In 1990 we had the opportunity to record in a real studio at Studiefrämjandet. The result was the demo “”Disciples of the True Art and it was officially released. It even got a good review a real newspaper (Arbetarbladet). It was hardcore but with metal influences, I guess some kind of cross-over. At that time we changed the band name to Benjamin. The band continued to rehearse up to the autumn of 1991, when I had to do the military service and we folded the band.

Do the band do any gigs?

Snillen – We made some 20 gigs over the years, mainly in Northern Uppland, but also in Uppsala and Gävle. We actually had Jens Åker (Ashram / Trappdoor Fucking Exit) playing drums at our debut gig in Storvreta. A fun gig.

Anyting else?

Snillen – Nope, I guess that was all!!!

Alright, done writing – someone else have to write about side B, Enjoy!

Click on the images to expand the higher resolution and song titles.

Cassette

Front of inlay

Rear of inlay