Martial Mosh & Horse Laugh ‎– You’re Not Better Than Me Bubbel-Bad ‎– Bad Prod 005 – 1988- Cassette ♬ Side Horse Laugh MP3 320 kbps ♬ Side Martial Mosh MP3 320 kbps

None of these bands are to well-known outside Sweden, frankly not even even within Sweden. Martial Mosh hailed from Västerås and Horse Laugh from Tranås. As for Martial Mosh we did not know much. We were aware that the first gig they made was with Dross, 16 Blåsare Utan Hjärna and Impopulär at Ultrahuset late 1986. So had to asked Krister Dahlberg, currently Dissober and Marko Mikan for some background on Martial Mosh:

Q: So Krister and Marko – how was Martial Mosh formed?

Krister : Before Martail Mosh, I and two classmates formed Syre Brist with me on drums. As for most musicians in the young years, band were started and folded. I on guitar, Micke [Malmgren] on bass and Johan on drums drums played in Asfaltsmaffian, later renamed Wankers. Micke and Johan also formed Panikbazill with Johan initially on vocals and later drums. Intersting they sounded like a punk band when Johan sung and more like Lädernunnan when he played drums.

After folding Wankers, I started to hang with Marko Mikan who liked punk like me and we formed Martial Mosh and Micke and Johan joined. I guess Micke and Johan wanted to play hardcore as Panikbazill had developed more into a rock sound.

Marko : In high school Krister’s sister, Lena, and I went to the same class. She heard that I was into punk/hardcore and told me that I could borrow some punkr ecords Krister had lent to Kristina, a fellow classmate of ours. After a couple of days I went to Kristina, picked up the records and headed straight to my stereo. After listening to the records I was confused. This didnt sound like my beloved Dead Kennedys, Black Flag or Crass records. As a matter of fact I had just discovered that Garagepunk wasn´t the same thing as Punkrock. The records in question were Pebbles compilations (think it was number one and three). When I met Krister to return the records we got along real good (he is a wonderful person). Both of us were into punk and we started to hang out and listening to records. One day at my place he wondered if I was into setting up a punkband with him. I felt honored and answered yes. Krister started to come up with diffrent bandnames (as you can see on Kristers charming drawing from that period. Krister being the one with glasses by the way). Shortly thereafter I got to know Johan and Micke from Panik Bazill (Sala/Ransta/Tjärsta/Västerås punkband) through our mutal friend Jerry. Jerry was quite a character, a swedish David Lee Roth incarnation heavily into metal of the hardest kind which in those days meant Bathory, Celtic Frost, Destruction, Slayer and Kreator among others. Anyways, the four of us started to hang out (me, Krister, Johan and Micke) and since Micke and Johan also wanted to start a hardcoreband we decided to form a band together. I actually recall where in Västerås we pretty much made up our minds that we were gonna call ourselfes Martial Mosh – it was while walking down the Domkyrkoesplanaden street in Västerås. Johan came up with Martial Art or Martial Arts while Micke thought Martial Farts sounded good but added that it was too close to the US-hardcoreband The Fartz. One of them also suggested Martial Mosh so we decided that was the best suggestion. As Krister said, Johan and Mickes band Panik Bazill started to move in a more Leathernun inspired style (not that it sounded like Leathernun but there were elements of rough, noisey rock thrown into their solid punk blender) while they wanted to play really fast hardcore like Poison Idea, MDC, Siege and Deep Wound. At the time I vividly remember that Micke truly loved Poison Idea’s “Pick your king” Ep and MDC´s first LP as well as Sieges two songs on Pusheads “Cleansing the bacteria” LP and introduced those bands for me and Krister. Johan in turn had the Deep Wound Ep on a cassette player so they were also an influence. I would say that Martial Mosh were initially influenced by Mickes loveaffair with Poison Idea and MDC and that Siege and Deep Wound were close competitors for Micke’s and our hearts. Having stated that, I believe the biggest influence for Martial Mosh (in the long run) was Heresy. We read a UK scene report for MRR in 1984 or 1985 about a band called Heresy and just loved the picture of Kalv dressed in a homemade “Cronos is a fucking wimp” t-shirt and when we got hold of their flexi “Never healed” (through CBR who were one of the distributers) we were stunned. Heresy’s split LP with Concrete Sox and “Face up to it” Lp were very huge inspirations for us. Before we started to practice we also asked Karri Mäkkeli (original TST drummer and a sweet person) to join in and he was up for it but when we started to rehearse we did it without Karri and I can´t really remember why but I guess it had to do with the fact that we decided that Johan would be the drummer in Martial Mosh (think the first plan was to have Johan as a singer was gonna sing but that obviously changed).

Image above: Drawing by a very young Krister Dahlberg in a frenzy to find a great name of the new band.

Q: Martial Mosh made this split tape with Horse Laugh. What the reason for working with Horse Laugh. Is this the only demo you guys made?

Krister : The demo was released by David who had the Bubbelbad zine. He knew Sweden and Löken (from Horse Laugh) so a split tape was logical. Martal Mosh had also played in Linköping with 16 Blåsare Utan Hjärna so we had some connection with them earlier. I remember that we recorded the demo in studio in Ransta outside Sala. It was managed by a two meter tall Finn who had played drums in some schlager-type band. We had heard about the studio as Tribulation had recoreded there. The result was not great. We also made a 8 – 10 song porta recording in our reshearsal room as well – never issued that as a demo however. The next release was the split EP with 16 Blåsare Utan Hjärna. It was the first release on Crash-Mange’s label. It was recorded in the same studio as Asocial made their 2nd or 3rd EP. The split was possible Markos idea!

Marko:We played our first gig with 16 BUH, Dross and Impopulär at Ultrahuset and got to know 16 BUH. After a couple of months Mikael “Löken” Karlsson (guitarist for 16 BUH) got us a gig in Linköping at Skylten. David Andersson (Bubbelbad fanzine) was there and contacted us and wanted to release a split tape with us and Horse Laugh. There was an early four channel recording made but very few ,if any, outside the band ever heard it. Maybe the guys in Tribulation (who were our good friends ) got a copy of it. It has two or three decent songs but it is nothing that needs to be heard. And for the split, Magnus Jansson (Crash-Mag records) called me and wanted to release a Martial Mosh single but I told him that we wanted to do a split with 16 BUH and I told the guys in Martial Mosh that Magnus wanted to release a split with us and 16 BUH. That was very selfish of me and I went behind the backs of both Magnus and the other guys in Martial Mosh just to have it my way. It was and is morally despicable. The reasons for doing so were that I liked the splitformat and that I really liked 16 BUH. Either way, I made a bad decision and did not give other people their right to form their own decisions. So, Magnus, Krister, Micke and Johan: I am sorry for my actions. As for the recording I know that we choose the studio in Falun because Filthy Christians had recorded their demo (the one recorded before the Lp) and Lp there and we liked the sound of the demo (which, unfortunately for them, turned out to be way better than the actual Lp).

Image to the left. The split with 16 Blåsare Utan Hjärna. Note that there are two pressing, this sleeve is the second pressing.

Q: That the reason Martial Mosh folded and what is the link to Dissober?

Krister : Well, I can’t really recall why we quit. Around 1992, I and some guys (Kosken and [Fredrik] Thölin) from MBE started Dissober. MBE was Mannen Bakom Elementet, also from Västerås. I think MBE was on one of the Really Fast Compilations, kind of melodic hardcore sound if I remember right! Back to Dissober: after a month we got gig with Dissober and [Magnus] Forsberg was added as sesssion drummer but he was so good so we kept him. Finally, Bröms quit the vocals and Micke started to sing and suddenly Dissober got a steady line-up.

Marko : Krister, we never quit. Martial Mosh was put on ice. The last show Martial Mosh played was in the autumn of 1992 in Falun together with Protes Bengt and Svart Snö and I think the main reasons for us entering the frozen state were due to Micke and Petter (the drummer that replaced Johan) moving to Stockholm and all of us slowly losing interest in the band. Krister, Micke and Petter! Come on! Can´t ya all see the bright shining light and the warmth that comes from God´s bosom! The Lord sure knows we all have taken the beaten path in life but have faith dear brothers. Have faith! God won´t abandon us! Now testify, testify and let us all raise our hands and sing hymn number 47, Septic Death´s “Thaw”. Now that could change things!

Q: Anything to add?

Marko : I feel privileged to have been a part of the punk scene in Sweden during my adolescence. There were so many great persons involved and I still am in touch with quite a few of them. This time I think I speak for everyone in the band when I say that it was a BLAST! being involved with this movement. Thanks to you dear detective for this interview and to David Andersson, Peter Ahlqvist, Magnus Jansson and Staffan Fagerberg and Patrik Jonsson for releasing us in one way or another.

Sveden : The band was for sure fun, Mikael “Löken” Karlsson (Rövsvett etc), Jimme [Karlsson] and I decided to form a D-beat band. Löken and I shared the drums and the guitar and we made a couple of gigs.

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