Here's the history of the band as well as info about the current
members. Click the names below to see the individual member pages.
The birth...
REGURGITATE started out in 1990 with the following members:
Rikard Jansson - vox / Mats Nordrup - guitar. Mats
also played drums in CREMATORY (from Sweden, not the one
from Germany) and GENERAL SURGERY. The band recorded a not
so long (2 min) demo in 1991 and played live one time - with a drum
machine. Peter Stjärnvind - who played drums in a lot of
bands at that time, soon joined the band.
Line-up 1991:
Rikard Jansson - vox
Mats Nordrup - guitar
Peter Stjärnvind - drums
In '92
REGURGITATE went in to a studio and recorded five songs for
the split with VAGINAL MASSAKER, released by Poserslaughter.
For some reason it was decided that the songs shouldn't be gore
ones but rather with a social message (or something). Back to
the gore with the songs recorded in CREMATORY's rehearsal
room 93-01-09, that was released by Glued Stamps Records
on a split with PSYCHOTIC NOISE. The tracks: Brainscrambler,
Regurgitated Giblets, Internal Bleeding, Methylated Bile, Liquid
Excrements, Carnal Cacophony, Vomit Breath, Suicide.
In
late 93 songs were written (by Mats) for the split-CD with DEAD
released by Poserslaughter. Peter didn't have time to play
the drums (because of his other bands...MERCYLESS, UNANIMATED,
DAMNATION, LOUD PIPES.......) so Mats took over
the drums, and because rehearsals are difficult when the guitarplayer
also plays the drums, they asked Urban, who played with
Mats in CREMATORY (still the Swedish one) to play guitar on the
CD. Urban and Rikard (both very much in to grindcore) weren't
to happy with the songs - much more death metal than real grindcore.
The studio sucked too.
The Effortless CD...
After the recording Rikard and Urban decided to make some real
grindcore songs, and to ask Peter to handle the drums again. At
this time it was also decided that CREMATORY should disband and
Joppe who played bass in CREMATORY joined REGURGITATE.
Urban wrote 30+ songs and the band also picked two old songs that
were re-recorded (Carnal Cacophony and Vomit Breath from the split
with Psychotic Noise). The result was the CD "Effortless
Regurgitation of Bright Red Blood" which was recorded in "GMB
Crematorium" in may 1994 and released on Lowland Records.
What the band wanted was for the CD to sound something like "Reek
of Putrefaction". The intro is from "City of the Living Dead"
(aka "Gates of Hell", directed by Lucio Fulci). Scene with a woman
throwing her guts up..... (regurgitating, you know ;-). And there
is a AGATHOCLES-cover there too.
Line-up 1994:
Rikard Jansson - vox
Urban Skytt - guitar
Johan (Joppe) Hanson - bass
Peter Stjärnvind - drums.
Because
Poserslaughter was so slow in getting the split with DEAD
out, "Effortless...." that was recorded six months later came
out at the same time (Lowland did a great job on that one). Poserslaughter
wasn't too pleased with that...but on the other hand Urban, who
drew the cover for the DEAD-split, wasn't too pleased either.
It really should have been in black and white...it looked much
cooler that way. Poserslaughter ruined the cover...and what are
those red balls they placed in the eyes?
In
'94 OBLiTERATiON records released a split with GRUDGE
with two songs from the same session as the PSYCHOTIC NOISE-split
and 11 songs from Demo-91.
Really
pleased with the studio and the lo-fi sound achieved on "Effortless..."
the band decided to record there once more. Result: the "Concrete
Human Torture" demo-94 with 17 new songs. Pure grindcore chaos!
Even more grindcore chaos followed as the band went to Germany
'95 to play a couple of live shows in the Berlin area. Things
were looking good but unfortunately, after writing some 50 grindsongs
during '94, Urban was getting tired with it. Since no new recordings
or live shows were made it looked to the world as if REGURGITATE
had disbanded. The band did release a split with INTESTINAL
INFECTION on Noise Variations in '96, but the songs
are from '94.
Effortless re-released
This could have been the end of the REGURGITATE story, but fortunately
(?) enough it isn't. A couple of years after the initial release
of the "Effortless..." CD an american record label -
Relapse - was in contact with Rikard about a possible re-release
of the CD, and with the rising interrest in grindcore music this
seemed to be a good idea. Around this time Urban and Rikard asked
themselves if it wasn't a good time to see if song writing inspiration
had returned - after all, 5 years had passed with no new compositions!
In deed it had and in '99 the band went into a studio and recorded
some new songs for the first time since '94. The 12 new tracks
ended up on "Promo 99", which was intended mainly
for record companies. As no one in the band was in contact with
the old bass player - Joppe - at that time and the old drummer
- Peter - was busy drumming with ENTOMBED, there was a
new line-up on "Promo 99". A new drummer was found in
Jocke (RETALIATION, DAWN, KIDS ARE SICK, THY PRIMORDIAL...)
and Urban decided to handle the bass as well as the guitar.
Line-up 1999:
Rikard Jansson - vox
Urban Skytt - guitar and bass
Jocke Pettersson - drums
Relapse released "Effortless Regurgitation...
the Torture Sessions" in 1999, containing 63 (!)
songs including the original "Effortless..." CD, the
"Concrete Human Torture" demo as well as some earlier
songs. This meant that many of the bands early recordings became
available for a wider audience. Relapse also recieved a copy of
"Promo 99" - which they liked - and therefore gave REGURGITATE
an OK for a brand new full length CD. But, before it was time
for the recording of that CD, 28 tracks were recorded in august
of '99 for various split 7"s. Late '99 Urban was busy writing
songs for the upcoming album, which was scheduled to be recorded
in february of the following year.
The Carnivorous Erection CD...
February 2000: Armed with 38 new songs REGURGITATE travelled through
Sweden in order to get to Örebro, and Soundlab Studios
where the "Carnivorous Erection"
CD was recorded, with the help of NASUMs Mieszko Talarczyk.
Recorded in a great studio and with the best songs written
to that date "Carnivorous Erection" was intended to
show people that REGURGITATE was back and in no way ready for
retirement. Relapse released the CD in november that year with
cover art by Wes
Benscoter that raised quite a few eyebrows. It was banned
from the stores in Germany, for instance. The CD got a lot of
great reviews from
magazines all over the world including one of the biggest morning
papers here in Sweden (Svenska Dagbladet).
In august of 2000 9 new tracks were recorded with the help of
a friend - Atte Strokirk (BLACKSHINE). The tracks
were intended for a split 7" with GORE BEYOND NECROPSY
on No Weak Shit Records. These tracks were dirtier,
noisier and more chaotic than "Carnivorous Erection"
something that appealed to the more die hard grindcore fans.
Live evil...?
In 2001 the band, for the first time, rehearsed on a regular basis.
This also meant that they could seriously consider playing live
on a regular basis. During the bands first ten years of existance
a total of four gigs was played - non of them rehearsed! But,
as offers to play live poured in, the band decided to begin by
playing a gig in Stockholm (at Kafé 44), with a stand-in
bass player - Terje, the vocalist of Arsedestroyer. More
gigs followed: Fuck the Commerse IV in Germany, Obscene Extreme
Festival in Czech and a small tour in Europe together with Entrails
Massacre and $krupel. The first couple of gigs weren't
much to write home about, but when it was time for another gig
in Stockholm together with Yacoepsae, things had certainly
changed for the better.
Hatefilled Vengeance
In between the liveshows new songs were written for a 12"
vinyl - "Hatefilled Vengeance".
A bunch of new songs together with some old ones were recorded,
once again, in Soundlab Studios with Mieszko Talarczyk.
The result was far better than the band hoped for, but still exactly
what they were striving for - straight forward grindcore, but
with good production.
Offers to play live kept coming and in early 2002 the band decided
it was time to get a permanent bass player. An american, just
moved to Sweden, fitted the bill perfectly - Glenn Sykes.
Having played with bands like Vomit Spawn, and Cardiovascular
Sub-Hypothermia he certainly knew his way around a grindcore
song. The first times Regurgitate played live with Glenn on bass
was two gigs in Rostock and Berlin in February of 2002... and
both gigs went great. The gig in Berlin was totally sold out and
the club was so unbelievably hot and damp, that Jocke almost passed
out behind the drums.
Line-up 2002:
Rikard Jansson - vox
Urban Skytt - guitar
Jocke Pettersson - drums
Glenn
Sykes - bass
Deviant - new full length album
Since it was two years since the recording of "Carnivorous
Erection" it was decided that a new and third full length
album was long over due - Relapse agreed, and Soundlab Studios
was again chosen as the place to record. But first of all new
material had to be composed, and this has been Regurgitates main
concern in 2002. Between song writting sessions, the band has
taken time to record a bunch of new songs for various sampler
CD's, as well as songs for a split 12" with hollands scariest
- Suppository. Regurgitate also went on a tour together
with Suppository and Entrails Massacre in July -
11 gigs in Germany, Czech and Slovakia... and - if we could have
decided - in Switzerland, but the Swiss Customs wanted otherwise.
The tour was, despite that, a great success.
The new album was recorded during the first two weeks of November
2002 and was released August 4 2003.
Good reviews, bad news
After the release of "Deviant"
the reviews started pouring in... and they were good reviews!
This included reviews in several of the larger newspapers here
in Sweden and All Music Guide calling Deviant "one of 2003's
best".
Despite the good reviews and some plans for touring in support
of the new album, the band decided to lay low for a while as drummer
Jocke was in more and more pain after a back injury. A handful
of gigs (like Just Killers - No Fillers Fest and Morbide Festspiele
- both in Germany) were played in 2004 with the help of their
friend Anders Jakobson (Nasum), but apart from that
the band bided their time waiteing for Jocke to recover.
The end of 2004 saw the return of Jocke behind the drums: A gig
in Cremona (Italy) on December 11 together with Nasum was the
first gig with "correct" line-up for a long time. Unfortunatelly
this gig was the last time the band would meet their good friend
- and the person behind most of the recent recordings - Mieszko
Talarczyk (1974-2004) who went from Italy to Thailand to celebrate
christmas and his 30th birthday... He was later confirmed to be
one of the many victims of the Tsunami that hit Asia on December
26th 2004.
The fourth full length album
Soundlab Studios was booked the summer of 2005 for the recording
of Regurgitate's fourth full length album, but without Mieszko
Talarczyk the studio where the second and third album was recorded
was no longer available. The band started looking for a new studio
to try out, but before that they had time to play their first
gig in the US - at the Maryland Deathfest - together with their
friends in General Surgery and Birdflesh who also played the same
festival. That summer Regurgitate also played the Obscene Extreme
Fest in the Czech Republic.
During the autummn of 2005 Regurgitate entered a studio they found
in Mjölby - the town where their drummer live - to record
some new songs, mainly to see if the studio could be used for
the recording of the long awaited album. It turned out the studio
was what they were looking for: a place without a lot of high
tech gadgets and a place where they could make a less polished
recording more in the vein of "classic" grindcore albums
of the early 90's. Pleased to have found a new studio the band
focused on making even more new songs until they - during April
and May 2006 - recorded the new album entitled "Sickening
Bliss".
Sickening Bliss
After finding the perfect studio for the new album and recording
30+ new tracks - of which 24 ended up on the album - they started
looking for the right artist to paint the cover in a way suited
to the slightly "retro" sounding production. The perfect
artist was found in Irishman Paul McCarrol who painted a idyllic,
but twisted, cover with a 50's feel to it.
Before the October release of "Sickening Bliss"
bass player Glenn Sykes decided to leave Sweden and therefore
also Regurgitate to move back to the US. A new bass player was
found in Johan Jansson (Interment, Uncurbed, Demonical,
ex-Centinex...) who joined the band in September 2006.
Line-up 2006:
Rikard Jansson - vox
Urban Skytt - guitar
Jocke Pettersson - drums
Johan Jansson - bass
The first gig with Johan Jansson on bass took place at legendary
Pub Bastun on Åland on September 30 and was a great start
for the new line-up. Regurgitate's fourth full length album "Sickening
Bliss" was released by Relapse Records on October 17
in the US and on October 23 in the rest of the world.
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