By the time Dismember unleashed Massive Killing Capacity in 1995, the young Swedes already had two albums and two EPs to their name. Combine that with a ton of touring experience, and the Stockholm-based death-metal squad was ready to try something different. “When we were younger, the attitude was very much ‘death metal only,’” drummer and songwriter Fred Estby tells Apple Music. “But now our views of music were broadening. We went back and listened to the stuff that was the roots of Black Sabbath—the Stones, The Beatles, R&B, the blues—so this album ended up being more death ’n’ roll.” In addition to writing slower and more melodic songs, Estby and his bandmates—vocalist Matti Kärki, bassist Richard Cabeza, and guitarists David Blomqvist and Robert Sennebäck—split up the songwriting more evenly in an effort to spread the mechanical royalties around. “Instead of me writing most of the stuff, I set a task for everyone to write at least one song for the album—music and lyrics,” Estby explains. “I prefer collaborating anyway because it usually makes better songs, in my opinion, especially for a band like us. So, it took a bit longer, but it turned out really good.” Below, he details each track. “I Saw Them Die” “We love Autopsy, and this song is an homage to them. We also decided that we weren’t going to start this album with a fast song. We wanted to start with a slow one just because we could—and because we wanted to change it up a little bit. This song is ugly in a cool way. It’s a hit to the head even though it’s not aggressive in the same way as a fast song. Matti was very instrumental with that song, I remember. It was a good collaboration. It didn’t take long for us to write that one.” “Massive Killing Capacity” “That’s what we call a Repulsion song. If you listen to their song ‘Black Breath’ after you hear this one, you might think we ripped it off. But we love Repulsion. And who doesn’t? This one has a weird midtempo thing that, for a band like us, is almost a little bit awkward to play. We actually played it for the first time in decades about a month or so ago in Stockholm. It was fun to play again, even if it’s not the usual Dismember track.” “On Frozen Fields” “That’s Richard’s song, more or less, with a little help from the rest of us. It’s one of those riffs that’s kind of like ‘Override of the Overture’ or ‘Skinfather’ territory. It was a no-brainer. I remember thinking that I must not overcomplicate the arrangement of this song because then we’re going back to the Indecent & Obscene style, which we wanted to stray from a bit. I really like this song, and we always play it live.” “Crime Divine” “This one is kind of my doing. I actually listened to it today and thought, ‘Yeah, it’s OK, but it’s not very Dismember-esque.’ That’s a little bit of a problem with that song, but I think it’s catchy. A lot of people tell us we should play it live, but the rest of the band doesn’t like that song at all.” “To the Bone” “This is another of Richard’s songs that he wrote with some help from us. Also not very Dismember-like. But I really like this one because it has the right groove to it. Originally, it was too long. I remember [producer] Tomas [Skogsberg] telling us we needed to shorten it, so we cut it down.” “Wardead” “That's my song. Very Dismember-esque and even Slayer-esque, I would probably say. For the lyrics, I got inspired by Clive Barker's short story from Books of Blood about people who are stranded on a deserted island. They’re building a boat, trying to get away from the island, but they can’t because the ocean is full of dead people who suddenly come to life and drag them down. They had been there since the Second World War. That song was on the Casket Garden EP, too.” “Hallucigenia” “Richard was really writing stuff for this album. This is also not very much a Dismember song per se, but I like that it has some kind of Autopsy groove to it, which is pretty cool. Parts of it sound like it could have been on Mental Funeral, I feel like. It’s also one of those songs that we wouldn’t play live because it wasn’t really working [in that way].” “Collection by Blood” “This is one of the better songs on the album. It’s Robert’s tribute to Judas Priest, I would say. Both me and him are huge Judas Priest fans. He had the whole thing written, and I just helped with the actual beat of it. Matti’s lyrics are inspired by The Iceman, the mafia hitman. There’s a famous interview with him where he says, ‘I blew this guy’s head off at a red light. He never saw the green light.’ We were kind of fascinated with how cold this guy was, how he had no emotions.” “Casket Garden” “Easily one of the better songs on the album. I don’t think we’ve ever gotten away without playing that live. People get really upset if we don’t play it. It’s a very catchy song. I remember it was written pretty quickly in the rehearsal space together. I think it was Robert who had the starting riffs. I wrote the lyrics, and they’re about…well, you can’t win. You’re going to end up in the graveyard no matter what you do.” “Nenia” “Robert and David—maybe Richard, too—wanted to do an instrumental. I wasn’t so sure, but when they showed me their ideas, I thought it was cool. All of us love the song ‘Orion’ by Metallica, so this is kind of our tribute to that song. We were a bit concerned that it was maybe a little too close, but people seem to like it.” “Life - Another Shape of Sorrow” “This was David’s first time writing his own song—lyrics and music. I love it. It’s a song he wrote when he was not feeling great, and he was just frustrated about stuff—work and, I guess, girlfriends. The lyrics are very depressive, but it’s also maybe one of those songs where you get those feelings out of your system and maybe you feel better. We still play that one live to this day, too.”