Filthy Christians

Entombed were not the first Swedish band to be signed to Earache - that honour goes to Falun's first and indeed, finest, grindcore band- Filthy Christians. Formed in 1987 by noted tape trader and original hardcore scenester, Per Thunell, the band played with Heresy on their earliest Swedish dates and also shared the stage with Napalm Death many times on their first forays into Scandinavia. Per himself was instrumental in the birth of the grindcore scene as we know it -being previously the singer in the seminal "Protes Bengt" - a project formed with members of Mob 47. Their first release, the stunning 32 track 7" single "In Bengt We Trust" (ROJ records) is , along with D.R.I., Deep Wound and Siege, etc one of the most important records in the evolution of superfast hardcore into what became grindcore. In 1989 the band signed to Earache and entered Musik Stugan in Falun in April to record the debut album "Mean". A fitting title considering the cover boasted a picture of the Swedish Prime Minister in a pool of blood-he had been gunned down in the street a year beforehand. The title was lifted from the late 80's UK industrial band Foetus' slogan of the time: "Say what you Mean and say it Mean". As well as displaying prime grindcore, the band experimented on a few tracks with the early Industrial sounds - Swans, Slab etc. Lyrically the band did not address too many serious topics, one song "Herring Attack" is simply a take on US speed metal band Wehrmacht's "Shark Attack". The album was confiscated at its release by british authorities for obscenity. Soon after its release the band split up -some members appeared later in Mudguard, Porklift and Bombklan. In november 2008, Filthy Christians announced that they had reformed. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.