Archangel's Lantern: november 2022

2022. november 12., szombat

Ronnie Ripper Olson

Interview with Ronnie Ripper Olson (Turbocharged)

Originally published in Kronos Mortus

in English and Hungarian languages

Hail Ronnie you are very hellcome to Hungarian Kronos Mortus! First, let me congratulate you for new killer old school material of Turbocharged called “Alpha Beast, Omega God”. (I’ve marked 10 in my Hungarian review; it will be one of my favourite releases of this year) How are the responses from underground media and fans so far?

- Thanks, it seems like the reviews this time are quite good and the mere number of reviews is a fresh breeze in our camp! Seems like people have noticed us once and for all and the coverage is by far better than we ever had for any previous release. As a band you always release the best album so far, every time the same feeling, but this time I think we managed to put together something special and it seems like the world has noticed it too.

Where did you record the new LP? How went the recording process? Who was the producer?

- We recorded it in the studio next to our rehearsal place, it’s basically another rehearsal place with studio gear just like ours but we wanted to have another set of ears to engineer the sound and to let go of the producer seat for once and hired Johan Sundström for the job. His studio is called DECIBEL HELL and it’s perfect for our needs, no fancy shit or arguments about doing this or that, he just nails what we want and we take over from there. I mixed and mastered the album at home though so it’s kinda collaboration in the end.

I know, it is always a hard thing but would you be so kind to talk about each track of the “Alpha Beast, Omega God”?

Piss Stigmata: D-beat mayhem with the balls of a rhino, perfect opening track.

Irreligious: Kind of our trademark sound, it’s D-beat again with some thrashy riffs and spicy lyrics.

Slave Rhetoric: Heavier track with again D-beat as basis, this one smells a bit like Bolt Thrower I reckon but it breaks out in punk as usual.

Phantom Cataclysm: This one is a bit out there, it’s blasts with some more blackish riffs and a deeper tone of lyrics, it’s for the fancypants listeners.

Alpha Beast, Omega God: If The Ramones went on a grave robbing spree, this is it.

Chaos Chronicles: This is punk, it’s metal and it’s war against radioplay.

Sanguinary: A hint of blasts and pounding backbeat percs, this is perhaps more death metal than most of the album.

Hunger of the Wendigo: Thrashy stuff, this one is quite typically our sound and could be a good first step for any new listener to know what we sound like.

Land of Pest: Fast death metal, this one is our contribution to the pandemic reflection and I wrote the lyrics years before it happened.

Hyper Blasphemous Shitstorm: This is the Motörhead homage of the album; no album is complete without a nod towards Lemmy & Co!

Profane Vortex: For some reason this kinda pulls towards German thrash in my opinion, it’s fast and contains a lot of words.

Priests in Darkness: Another nod, this time towards Celtic Frost/Hellhammer in the beginning and then maybe towards Merciless or Massacra.

Your album was released via Danish label, Emanzipation Productions. How did happen your cooperation with them?

- It was actually Perra Karlsson (Nominon, Benediction, Destroyer 666, etc, etc, etc) who told the label about us and they offered us a deal and we took it. It’s just dumb luck and the help from a friend, no big story behind it at all really. It was good timing and we needed a direction for the next step and here we are now.

Turbocharged celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2020. You made an awesome documentary called “7300 Days in Sodom” with a lot of brilliant covers of your favourite bands. I enjoyed a lot your stories and of corpse all the covers as well, especially Nihilist/Entombed, Impaled Nazarene and The Exploited ones. Tell us some interesting info about that monster project.

- The whole cover thing was a live set that was killed off there and then by Covid, the festival was cancelled as we picked the last two songs. We decided to record the stuff in the rehearsal place and when we realized it was too good to just tuck away on a harddrive at home we also decided to make all those videos. The documentary was an old idea that just tagged along with the cover set and it was a few hectic months to finish it all. We shot everything on Wednesdays and Sundays and in between the shoots I tried to edit a finish each video before then next one was shot. I don’t know any other band that pulled shit like this off and now I know why, it takes a complete idiot to pull it off and lucky for us we had ME.

If I mentioned your fantastic cover of Nihilist/Entombed, “Supposed to Rot”: Did you play together with Entombed with Lars-Göran (R.I.P.) or other bands including him back in the day? If yes, share us your memories.

- We never played with any of his bands but I do remember him making donuts with a rental car outside a gig in Strömstad, he had been drinking and had no driving license. The gig was actually also Dissection’s first gig ever.

I’ve almost forgotten to ask: are there any plans to made official videos for your new LP?

- I’m actually editing the first one as I write these answers and the plan is to make a few more along the way for this album.

I’ve watched a great video about Turbocharged live show you played in September this year in Craiova/Romania. What are your experiences? When and where will be your next shows?

– Yes, we headed to Romania once again and truly had a blast on stage and off! That was until we tried to get home and were greeted with a cancelled flight, it took us 24 extra hours to get home but we make it. We also played a gig in Denmark some weeks ago and we will return to Denmark in May next year for another noisy encounter. We don’t really chase gigs, they come to us and we’ll see what happens in the backdraft of this album.

Let’s talk a little bit about Ronnie Rippers Private War. When you will be playing live with your Private War?

- We did play three gigs with Private War with only Danish musicians and me on vocals. We were going to do one gig only but for some reason it turned into three shows. There are no plans to ever play live again though, it was never meant for stage performances.

You are from Forshaga, Sweden. Which interesting places are your recommendations to visit it in your area? Are there any local foods and drinks you’d recommend to taste for us?

- There is nothing to recommend here actually, it’s a sleepy part of the country and the charm is that nothing ever happens here. We have no local cuisine or drinks; it’s just the local pizza place and a lot of weird people.

Tack så mycket Ronnie, it was a pleasure to talk to you. My/our best wishes to Turbocharged and I really hope to meet you live in the very near future in our area. Please send a message to your Hungarian fans and the readers of Kronos Mortus to complete this conversation.

- Thanks yourself, it’s always a pleasure to be seen and heard in public! We hope to return to Hungary one day but as of now we don’t know where our paths will take us, anything is yet to be done! If you didn’t check out our new album you should give it a few spins, it doesn’t suck that much! Keep it brutal, folks!