Heart of Steel: Interviews
"Thrash Metal Has No Boundaries..."
The
Finnish Speed/Thrash Metal special (Pt. 1) Featuring interviews with
Deathchain, Divine Decay, Jumalation,
Malicious Death, Mokoma,
Pain Confessor,
and WhereVictimsLie
Intro and all the interview questions
by Luxi Lahtinen
First off, would you enlighten our readers on how your band got started
and took its first steps musically? Then, tell us how your music has
evolved since
then?
Tuomo (Mokoma): Mokoma was founded by the vocalist Marko
Annala in 1996. After the fist demo the band - or Annala's solo project by
that time - got signed by EMI. Our co-operation lasted for two albums (VALU
(1999) and MOKOMAN 120 PÄIVÄÄ (2001)) which got OK response but didn't
sell enough.
Musically we were mainly somewhere between Faith No More and Helmet
sung in Finnish, although on our second album we also had one song that
had some 80's thrash influence. When we started writing material for our
third album, those Thrash riffs just kept coming. Soon we had a good bunch
of Thrash songs, and we had more fun making music than ever. We all had
strong background playing and listening to thrash, now we just didn't
give a fuck if some influences might be quite obvious. We just wanted to
enjoy playing again after our traumatic radio metal days on EMI.
We realized that this might mean committing commercial suicide, but at
least we would go with style… And yes, the record labels didn't understand
our style change. Thanks to the fantastic response from the live
audience and colleagues, we ended up founding our own record company
Sakara Records, which really was the right choice to make. Now our third
album KURIMUS has sold at least three times more than the first two albums
on a major label EMI. We showed them how to do it, hah!
Anthares (Jumalation): All started in my brains at the
end of nineties after listening to some Destruction and other classic Thrash
Metal endlessly. But the band got a real shape in 1999 when we gathered in
rehearsals and everybody´s skills effected to the whole shit. The music
hasn´t technically "changed", but let´s just wait and see how
the future rehearsing and "production" will shape it.
 Bilibaldus (Malicious Death): Me and Obadio talked about
forming a band in the spring 2002. We have a similar taste in music and we
were talking about different styles of music we like and how some bands
are so amazing and so on. After a pizza and few beers we ended up forming
a Thrash Metal band because we thought it was one of the biggest dreams
for both us. We invited Jerker to play the drums in the first rehearsal
with us and things got started pretty well. Actually, he blew our minds
with his technique. We practiced our first songs like "Malicious
Death" and "Hate Generator" before we found Red Jesus to
sing in the band. After that we were ready to kick ass. Back in those days
we used to laugh so much it hurt when we practiced. Of course we also have
fun nowadays but things have gotten a slight bit more serious.
Obadio (Malicious Death): I must admit that our musical
abilities have gotten better along the way. That still doesn't mean that
the music itself has changed to a more cultivated direction. It is just
easier to play certain things now as it used to be in the beginning. We
started out playing raw and honest Thrash and that is exactly what we are
planning to do. We made it clear to ourselves in the very beginning that
we will respect the old school bands even if that meant lacking in the
originality.
Corpse (Deathchain): Deathchain was formed in winter 1997
under the name of Winterwolf. I formed Winterwolf because I wanted to play
Death/Thrash Metal with an old-school touch. Our first demo had also some
Black Metal influences, but our second demo was more Thrash -orientated.
Winterwolf released two demo-CDs with an old line-up. Those demos were
titled DEATH…WILL COME ON YOUR WAY (January 2000) and BLOOD FOR DEATH
(January 2001). After these two demos, I was disappointed to the current
state of the band. During the autumn 2001 a new era for the band was
started. After I relocated the band to Kuopio, new members were found for
the band. The new line-up soon took over including Bobby in guitar, Kuolio
in bass and Kassara in drums. Soon after that the band's name changed to
Deathchain.
In the beginning of the year 2002 we entered the S. Jämsen's Studio
Perkele and recorded a demo called POLTERGEIST containing four tracks of
aggressive Deathrash Metal with a hard attitude. Even though the demo got
mainly good reviews, I wanted to strenghten the vocal department a bit. A
new vocalist named Rotten was found in summer 2002 and I started
concentrating to guitar playing only. Relatively soon we also got signed
to Dynamic Arts Records, and recorded our debut album DEADMEAT DISCIPLES
at Studio Perkele in summer 2003.
Pain Confessor: The band got started in the summer of
2002 first as a project and then it evolved into a real band. Since the
beginning our music has matured from a slightly generic melodic Death
Metal into a more unique style of our own.
 Paul (Divine:Decay): Well, it was back in spring 1999 at
the yard of the famous Lepakko (building for the concerts, rehearsals and
culture activity which was blown up for the NOKIA office building) where
we were rehearsing with our other bands. So there we both decided to spend
our extra time to build some old-school Speed/Thrash riffs what has been
our favourite since mid-80´s.
Alec (Divine:Decay): Then Toni (bass) and Pätkä (drums)
came along few weeks later. We knew them as friends and as fellow
musicians. We also knew their passion for the same musical style.
Paul (Divine:Decay): Things took of pretty easy at first
but eventually we made a demo, live shows and stuff. Who could have
guessed…?
Alec (Divine:Decay): At first we had plans to search for
a "real vocalist", but by "mistake" I ended up being
the main voice. So that's how we got started and now we have already
released our second album. I must also say that who could have guessed…
Simo (WhereVictimsLie): In the beginning of the year 2000
Petosalmi told Hakkola about his vision to start a band that would play
aggressive Thrash Metal. They soon asked me to join them. The idea was to
play Thrash Metal in the vein of the bands me and Jarkko had grown up
listening to, such as Slayer, Death, Sepultura, Morbid Angel and Stone,
and ultimately combining the best elements of all of these bands.
January 2003 saw Petosalmi and Rahikainen getting down to their
rehearsal room with Häkkinen to show him some of the songs they had
recently been working on. It didn't take too long from Häkkinen to
realize that he had to be a part of this project. Me and Jarkko were
having similar musical background as well as playing history of some 15
years, managed to compose four songs in two months with Häkkinen helping
us on arranging. We recruited Ursin to play the bass and soon booked a
studio to record our first output. In May 2003 this monster, which ended
up having WhereVictimsLie as its name, entered Sam's Workshop studio in
their hometown to record their first promo/demo tape. Since then, we have
composed two new songs. As a mutual decision we agreed not to put too many
elements to our songs from variety of our favorite bands. To tell you, in
the future, we should mostly have the aggression of Slayer and the
melodiousness of Death.
Did you start playing Thrash Metal as a natural option for
you in the first place? What other genres of metal are you fascinated and
interested by except Speed and Thrash?
Alec (Divine:Decay): We have a saying that "Even the worst Metal
is best" and I agree. This was a natural choice for us since it was
the music that we grew up with. All the riffs come out quick and
naturally.
Paul (Divine:Decay): We actually didn't plan all that much. It was an
idea and we decided to do it that was it. Sure other Metal and non-Metal
genres are good, too. Good music in general is good music (nice sentence,
eh..?).
Anthares (Jumalation): Fuck yeah! The main goal was to create Thrash
Metal what I had in my mind back in the day, and not any retro
Rock´n´Roll Thrash like some other bands did at the time. They just gave
"Thrash" a bad name (should it be "trash" then?).
There are so many "genres" and other music that might have had
an effect on our band, but maybe just as some tiny and probably invisible
parts of the constructions. I think all of us are into Heavy, - Power, -
Speed, - Thrash, - Death, and Black Metal - also into Hardcore, Punk,
Crossover or just whatever is powerful.
Tuomo (Mokoma): Thrash came in very naturally after our second album.
Most of us played thrash in the late 80's and early 90's. Since that we
played in several bands and experimented with different styles of metal -
trying to evolve something original. Now we just stopped trying and kind
of let the music play us - hah, what a cliché....
But I still have to say that we aren't 100% Thrash. We want to keep
melody in our music, and melodic songs will be part of our style in the
future as well. Besides Marko's original vocals, melody is the key thing
that makes us a bit different compared to an average Thrash band.
We don't mind genres, we like good music. And there are good bands in
every genre I can think of. But ok, besides Thrash, Death Metal is closest
to my heart.
Corpse (Deathchain): Well, you know, I´ve always loved Thrash Metal,
and I have loved it since I heard REIGN IN BLOOD from Slayer for the first
time when I was 12 years old. After that album there was no turning back,
so playing Thrash Metal is a very natural thing for me. I´m really much
into Death Metal also, and bands like Morbid Angel, Sadus, Cannibal
Corpse, Vader, Malevolent Creation are really close to my heart. But the
best band in the fucking world is IRON MAIDEN though!! In other words,
my favorite genres are Thrash Metal, Death Metal and ´80s traditional
Heavy Metal.
Bobby Undertaker (Deathchain): I've always liked a heavy music, not
necessarily only Speed and Thrash Metal. But our Thrash/Death is my thing
playing-wise. I love playing this king of powerful music with a hard
attitude. However, most of my favorite bands come from the Thrash genre. The type of music that we play comes out pretty naturally indeed.
Pain Confessor: First of all, we never thought whether or not we should
play Thrash Metal or any other specific style of metal. We all have our
own individual influences considering our past and musical tastes.
Bilibaldus (Malicious Death): Well, as I said we had a serious
conversation that led to this situation. Actually, I'm not interested in
any genre in the whole. I'm just interested in music. If it's good, it's
good. That's it. But also I don't judge music beforehand just because it
comes from some specific genre.
Obadio (Malicious Death): We are both into so many different types of
music that you wouldn't believe. That doesn't mean that we would bring
different elements to our music or that we wouldn't take our Thrash Metal
seriously. We are no youngsters anymore. When people get older they might
understand that it is not important to be fundamentalist when it comes to
music. I listen to a lot of different sorts of Punk, Ska, Progressive Rock
and Jazz bands. Metal in its numerous forms is of course the most heart
warming music there is!
Timo (WhereVictimsLie): I don't really listen to Thrash Metal that
much. The Haunted and At the Gates are both awesome bands, but that's
about it for me. I was asked to join WhereVictimsLie by Simo (we both play
in Funeris Nocturnum) and I went down to our rehearsal room once with the
other guys and liked to material a lot, so why not. Even though I'm not a
fan of Thrash I must say that the songs we have are amazing, just wait
'til you hear our new stuff! The genre of Metal I listen to the most is
Death Metal. Some Grindcore and Black Metal are great, too. I'm very
open-minded with music and listen to a lot of other genres, too.
Simo (WhereVictimsLie): For me, Thrash Metal has always been a strong
option for everything I have musically done. As Timo just told, we have
been playing Black Metal together. About 10 years ago, I listened to Death
Metal and other extreme Metal very enthusiastically. Nowadays, I am maybe
old and conservative and have lost some of my interest for brutality what
comes to listening new musical acts.
What bands could you consider as some of your influences or
inspirations? Would you say that some of those
influences are visible and can be tracked down in the band you
play?
Anthares (Jumalation): Obviously Dark fucking Angel, Destruction,
Onslaught, Slayer, E.X.E., Necromonicon, Virus (UK), Possessed, Sacrilege
(UK), Sacrifice, Razor, Lobotomia (Bra), Kreator, Sodom, Sadus and Morbid
Saint as the latest innovator for me personally in my songwriting. I know
for sure that some of those influences are tracked down in our songs and I
am not even ashamed of that at all. But we are probably following the same
paths with the the bands I just mentioned recently, but in the future we
will be kicking asses with our own monstrous stuff! We are taking
influences also from some bands like production-wise. Like filtering some
of the rage, filth, fury and blood of our main influences into our own
soup of a thrashing madness.
 Tuomo
(Mokoma): I must admit that a few teardrops fell when I saw a Slayer concert with Lombardo back in the line-up a while ago. In the end,
we owe them everything. REIGN IN BLOOD was the album that changed my life
permanently.
We also have to thank The Haunted for a great inspiration. They pulled
our Thrash trigger by showing that you can play Thrash in the 00's and
still sound fresh. We actually honoured them with the song called "Vainottu
("Haunted" in English)" on our album KURIMUS.
Bilibaldus (Malicious Death): Influences come from the end of 80's from
bands like Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Slayer, Death, Sepultura and so
on. But biggest thing that inspires me is Voïvod. I hope people can hear
these bands in us.
Obadio (Malicious Death): Yeah, you can easily track down some of the
influences. Actually, if some riff turns out to resemble let´s say Death
or Kreator we just think that then it must be a good riff. For me the most
inspirational band of all time is Motörhead.
Simo (WhereVictimsLie): I've had my all time favorites since decades
and not starting to lose my interest. Of course everyone should hear the
influences from my compositions. Slayer, of course, is one the biggest.
Stone made a big impression when I first time heard of them. Death was
amazing with their new touch and approach of taking some of the melodies
and rhythms. Others to mention are: Testament, Meshuggah (never stopped
listening to Thordendal's incredible lead guitars), The Haunted, and last
but not least: Metallica (I hope everyone got their tickets to
Metallica´s forthcoming concert in Helsinki in June 2004?).
Timo (WhereVictimsLie): I grew up listening to Metallica and Iron
Maiden etc., but for quite a long time Death Metal has been "The
Metal" for me. At the moment bands like Origin, Cryptopsy, Rotten
Sound and such influence me a lot (I'm not going to list all the bands I love,
because that would take too much space). I don't know if that's really
visible in this band as I've tried to keep the drumming fairly simple with
WhereVictmsLie. I will add some elements into our newer stuff however... I
think Death is one name that you'll be able to hear through from our new
material.
Corpse (Deathchain): The biggest influence that you can hear in our
music is definitely Slayer. But I could also draw influences to my riffs
from bands like Testament, Destruction, Sodom, Morbid Angel, Sepultura,
Kreator, Malevolent Creation and Dark Angel. I could say that in a way you
can hear them all in our music. Like some of our songs may have the same
kind of feeling. For example the chorus riff in one of our songs called
"Carrier of Pestilence, it´s got a similar riff as the first riff in
"Painkiller" from Judas Priest.
Bobby Undertaker (Deathchain): I think I also must say that Slayer is
the thing that can be heard through our music. Maybe it´s not only the
riffs, but overall this specific feeling of our music as well. My biggest
personal influence is Kind Diamond and Mercyful Fate, but that is
something that can't be heard in our music too much. Of course I take
influences from anywhere I can, from many different kinds of bands and
genres.
Pain Confessor: We have been compared to the usual melodic Death Metal
bands and to some extent those comparisons may be correct. We don´t try
to sound like any of those. Our music is what we like to play and we
strive to sound like Pain Confessor.
Paul (Divine:Decay): Yeah, they are probably pretty obvious. Stuff like
Accept, Slayer, Testament and VoiVod are the main influences.
Alec (Divine:Decay): …and of course Stone (Finland) which sometimes
is almost a burden because of my voice. Foreign journalists seldom spot
the similarity because they don't know them, but here in Finland the
situation is completely different because they were the biggest band of
the genre back then.
Paul (Divine:Decay): Although, being compared to Stone is a compliment,
but sometimes pretty annoying, too.
Are there any Finnish Speed/Thrash Metal bands that you
kind of thank and give some credit to for how they have inspired you
to create a similar type of music?
Simo (WhereVictimsLie): I think Thrash Metal is somehow trendy
nowadays. Still, I am not keeping track of new bands coming from Finland.
Anyway, I have a feeling that there are not so many bands here performing
Thrash Metal in the vein of Slayer? However, all-time gratitude to Stone,
tho!
Bilibaldus (Malicious Death): Well I have to say Stone and Airdash were
one of the biggest and because of our name I have to say Necromancer.
Well, all the bands that used to play in the legendary gig place Lepakko
and in the Helsinki area inspired me. Brainwash, Charged, Dethrone, N.N.S.,
A.R.G., Protected Illusion, Terrific Verdict, Dirty Damage and Oppression
are definitely worth mentioning.
Tuomo (Mokoma): Of course Stone has to be mentioned first. After a
decade, their albums still sound fresh - apart from the lyrics maybe…
Musically they were - and still are - unbeatable. But a band called
Charged might have been even a bigger influence for us. They released only
one album called IN VICE in 1989. It is a great album, but wasn't marketed
at all. Since they were from our home town, we saw them live many times
and learned the basics of headbanging, watching those guys… We did a
tribute to them on our PUNAINEN KUKKO EP, which was released in October.
We covered and translated their song titled "A.C.N.R." which
stands for "Anti-Christ Never Rest". Our version is called
"H.E.L.L. ("Hän ei Lepää Lainkaan").
Alec (Divine:Decay): Oh shit! Here we go again. Well, I must answer
Stone…
Paul (Divine:Decay): The Finnish Speed/Thrash scene back in the 80´s
was pretty lame expect for a few bands, but mainly the whole Heavy Metal
culture in Finland has always been really active in general if you
consider the listeners´ point of views.
Alec (Divine:Decay): Yeah, and nowadays people are more interested in
bands like Nightwish, Children Of Bodom or Stratovarius which is a good
thing of course even if I'm not such a fan of those…
Paul (Divine:Decay): And music comes and goes in cycles, so we are just
waiting for our turn to be rich and famous, he-he-he…!!
Anthares (Jumalation): Yes!! They are 99% those classics from late
eighties like Necromancer, ARG, Mengele, Lycanthophy, Terrific Verdict and
Protected Illusion. And from the recent stuff I like our musical soul
mates Malicious Death!! ("Morjens siat!"). But I love the
attitude of Evil Angel as well. Cheers...!!
Bobby Undertaker (Deathchain): Not actually. I have always liked Stone
really much though. Roope Latvala is one hell of a guitar player and he
impressed a lot of people back in the Stone days and he still does. But we
are quite different from what Stone did. All old Finnish Speed/Thrash
bands were so much different from what we are. I think our inspiration is
elsewhere and I think it's a good thing to keep the blood fresh.
Corpse (Deathchain): Hmm… I haven´t really been inspired by any
Finnish bands. But I won´t never deny their meaning for Finnish Metal
scene either.
Pain Confessor: A little besides the point old Sentenced until AMOK...
and Stone.
Tell us something about the releases you have done so far and what
kind of plans you have for your future releases?
Anthares (Jumalation): Our catalogue is quite humble with only one
three track demo and its now getting older and older. It´s called
JUMALATION THRASH ATTACK which we released under Pedro Anthares Group.
Maybe now the both titles are sounding uninteresting? But musically we are
not ashamed of the songs, only some song constructions could have been
done better. But we are happy with it because we know we will do much
better stuff in the future. And future plans are a bit open now except we
are going to do the split with this Malicious Death. I don´t know that
accurately yet what kind of split it will be, probably 7" E.P. or
something... It really depends on who is going to release it eventually.
 Tuomo
(Mokoma): Those two albums released on EMI are not available
anymore. Musically they might not be that interesting to someone who reads
the Finnish Thrash Metal special on Metal-Rules.com. Our third album
KURIMUS (April 2003) has been a success in Finland. It has been described
as the first ever Thrash Metal album sung in Finnish. In October we
released PUNAINEN KUKKO EP, which title song was taken from KURIMUS. It
also included the above mentioned Charged -cover, re-make of an old song
and two left-over songs from KURIMUS sessions.
At the moment we are writing material for our fourth album. We are not
sure about its releasing schedule yet.
Corpse (Deathchain): All of our releases have been recorded in Studio
Perkele with S(atanic) Jämsen.
Here´s a list of all our recordings:
Winterwolf: DEATH... WILL COME ON YOUR WAY (2000) sold out
Winterwolf: BLOOD FOR DEATH (2001) sold out
Deathchain: POLTERGEIST (2002) 10 copies left from 250 copies
Deathchain: DEADMEAT DISCIPLES (2003)
We are writing new songs all the time, and we have 4 new songs ready
after our debut album. We are planning to go to the studio in summer 2004,
but it´s not absolutely sure yet because we are hoping to do some
touring, too. But we´ll see what happens.
  
Bobby Undertaker (Deathchain): We don't have to rush into studio. We
want the next album to be as good as possible. So we hope to gig as much
as possible and compose new material whenever it feels right.
 Paul
(Divine:Decay): Well, to continue from your first question first.
After the demo sessions and a few shows we got signed to Osmose. Since
then we have made two albums. The first one was titled SONGS OF THE DAMNED
and our latest that came out a couple of months ago was called MAXIMIZE
THE MISERY.
Alec (Divine:Decay): We are proud of both albums, but very poor in
describing the music in them. It´s the 80´s type of Speed Metal with a
more modern sound and of course we can't avoid being influenced by what's
going on now.
Paul (Divine:Decay): In the future we plan to continue in what we are
doing which means making music without thinking that much. It´s easy for
us… Not thinking, I mean.
 Bilibaldus (Malicious
Death): We have just released our first album on
vinyl only. Eight tracks of pure Thrash inferno! In the future we have
plans to do a split single with Jumalation and of course the next album.
Some songs have already been written and I have the name for the album and
the cover idea already planned. From the song titles like
"Possessed", "Morbid Massacre" and "Grave Under
Ice" you get some hints of the brutality of the new stuff.
Pain Confessor: We have recorded a couple of demos and currently we are
working on our first release for a label.
Simo (WhereVictimsLie): So far, we have done a 4-song demo/promo. Our
plan is to take careful steps and not to hesitate. At the time, we have
approached a few record companies and made a few gigs. We will see what
future brings to us!
How do you see your band on the map of the Finnish metal scene?
Particularly being located amongst Finnish Thrash Metal
bands, knowing that stone-hard fact we have
many talented and skilled musicians in all kinds of metal bands and many
of them have already been acknowledged as damn fine and unique
bands worldwide.
Alec (Divine:Decay): Once more we don't think that much. I don't know
if we're just plain dumb or what's going on…
Paul (Divine:Decay): We are…!!
Alec (Divine:Decay): The thing is that we're just having fun with what
we do. I know it's a corny thing to say, but that's the truth anyway.
Paul (Divine:Decay): We'd be doing this anyway, record deal or not.
Everything we have gained is of course a big bonus and we appreciate
everything we have achieved thus far.
Alec (Divine:Decay): Yes, of course. We are very thankful for all the
people who have and will trust in us and our music.
Simo (WhereVictimsLie): At the moment, we are still a quite fresh
new-comer in the business. What comes to our location on the map on
Finnish metal scene as a name WhereVictimsLie. Definitely, we are quite
unknown at the moment. But our main bands should quite a many recognize,
tho. According to that, it is natural that we got peoples attention more
easily. But of course, you cannot force someone to like our music.
Bobby Undertaker (Deathchain): I think Deathchain fits into that map
really well. I mean, in Finland the best thing about Metal bands in
general are their unique and different styles. No one is trying to rip off
other band's shit and everyone is doing their own thing. Some bands are
very successful both in Europe and in the rest of the world, too. I don't
necessary like all the bands myself, but you have to give them credit for
their hard work and success. Nowadays you can be very proud of playing in
a Finnish Metal band indeed. Playing-wise and from a productional point of
view, Finnish Metal kicks ass. And nowadays almost everyone knows
Finland. The statue of being "A Finnish Metal band" has a very
good reputation. Of course Deathchain is not a mainstream thing in
Finland, we're too heavy I guess. I think Central Europe is better for
us. The underground scene in Finland is very strong and very talented
bands are popping up everywhere and all the time. And I mean truly
skillful bands and players. Now it seems like Death/Thrash is very
strongly raising fists everywhere. It's great to be a part of that and see
what the future brings.
Anthares (Jumalation): Well, I think on this "map" we should
be attached with this older stuff like I mentioned above. We are not doing
anything with these "high quality" bands what Finland is
probably known for. Their ´suave´ and polished production is absolutely
not our thing at all.
 Tuomo
(Mokoma): I am extremely grateful about the way we have been
recognized by our fellow bands and audience. Due to our Finnish lyrics,
hippie-looking vocalist and variety in our material, I still think that we
are considered more or less a freak among metal the Finnish metal scene -
and I think standing up that way is only a good thing. I don't want
everybody to like our band.
We love metal - that unites us with other Finnish Thrash Metal bands -
at least WhereVictimsLie and Pain Confessor. And that we are no longer
teenagers, that´s for sure…
Bilibaldus (Malicious Death): I see us more in the underground scene
and hope to gain some popularity there. I can't see us as growing a huge
name even inside Finland. I hope people consider us a minor cult name all
around and enjoy what we do.
Obadio (Malicious Death): That's right. We have already gathered a
certain underground following in the Helsinki area. We honestly believe
that getting acknowledged by a mass of people is not the primary thing for
us. It's great to sell some records and t-shirts and see people coming to
gigs but if things get bigger it might take the fun out of it. We are
happy to be in the underground but definitely in the frontline of true
Thrash Metal.
How much has internet helped to get your band name around to
people´s lips? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the
internet in your opinion if we only try to keep the main focus on your
band activities?
 Kuisma
(Mokoma): Internet was a very important medium of promotion when
KURIMUS was released. Since our marketing budget was pretty close to zero,
we needed to get innovative in that sense. We almost felt that the old
school demo trading and flyer hand-out days are back. The greatest
advantage of course is the relatively low price (if you don't value your
time) and controllable target audience. The disadvantage is mainly that
you cannot control the media easily, and since any MF can write what ever
shit about you anonymously, you need to be quite alert what people is
publishing and trying to spread the "truth" as much you can.
Some rumors, however, can be very flattering such as that someone heard
from someone that our singer, Marko, had shattered his cervical vertebra
due to all that head banging. We were very flattered!
Paul (Divine:Decay): The internet has been a really good channel for
smaller bands like us. For example our new video was shown in our website
and there were over 1000 clicks within first 4 days. It´s quite a lot for
us because it's really hard to get any publicity for the videos in any
country.
Alec (Divine:Decay): And overall a lot of promotion is done over the
internet in the comfort of your own house (if you have one).
Paul (Divine:Decay): While it's plain and easy to do the things via
internet I'd like to see where people would be without the internet. For
example, our drummer has never been on the internet or sent any emails and
he's doing just fine (or is he?).
Anthares (Jumalation): Quite a lot actually. Especially we have been
lazy as hell to spread our stuff anywhere. The good side is that I don´t
have to walk to a local post office and send packages anywhere. I just
hate dealing with post office! The negative side is that everything is
sooo easy for everyone to pick up whatever they want to, so a certain
spark of finding stuff is kind of gone because there is so much shit
available nowadays via the internet.
Bilibaldus (Malicious Death): I think internet has been a big help for
us. We are selling M.D. albums ourselves and it's easy for people to
contact us by e-mail. Internet helps us to get some listeners from outside
of Helsinki. We haven't had any big orders from outside of Finland yet but
will see what happens in the future. Internet is also a good place to
spread information about gigs. There are some special Finnish Metal forums
that are very popular. The internet hasn't caused us any problems yet but
I'm sure there are also some disadvantages. Rumors and false information
spread fast when anybody can write what they want and thousands of people
read it.
Timo (WhereVictimsLie): It has helped a lot. We've only done one
promo/demo tape so far, but in the Finnish metal circles our name has
gotten around fairly well. I mean we've done only few gigs and haven't yet
really promoted the band that much, but people are starting to recognize
our name. Internet is a huge advantage. For bands it's amazing because you
can easily get people to check out your band, listen to your music and
spread the word as there are some really active metal communities
available (message boards especially!) which really help people to check
out new bands and spread the word. Communication with other bands and
sharing information about gigs etc. is also a lot easier now than it was
before.
 Bobby Undertaker
(Deathchain): For us the internet is a great help. I
mean, it's the strongest media today, easy to use and more and more people
have access to it every day. Net ´zines, forums and shit are really easy
and free promotion for an upcoming band like us. In general, the internet
helps to keep yourself informed. You can easily read news and shit from
bands´ websites and spread the word. What comes to MP3s, it's a bit
difficult thing. I think that true fans buy their records from stores
anyway, even if they download it first from the net. MP3s are a great and
easy way to look out for new bands, even if you could do it at the record
store as well. But of course MP3s affect record sales and that's a bad
thing. Lots of bands can't tour because their records haven't sold enough.
The better your album sells, the better your chances are for touring. Of
course it's wrong that you can download full albums of music for free.
Besides that, the internet is really a great channel for promoting our
band.
Corpse (Deathchain): Most of my contacts have found us from the
internet, so for us it´s been a really great way to promote Deathchain
abroad. I also believe that true fans want the whole package, but like
Bobby mentioned, MP3s are a great way to look for new bands.
Pain Confessor: Promotion-wise, internet is THE thing for us. Since
almost all the people who have heard of us and checked out our music have
mainly done so because of the free tracks we put up on our site, so we
can´t say there are any disadvantages.
Band homepages... Could you introduce some detailed things out from a
homepage of your own band; what you already have there now and what it will
possibly contain in the near future? And do you have the ability and know-how
to build up your own homepage and to add stuff into there by yourself?
Kuisma (Mokoma): We are pretty lucky that we have two semi-pro internet
developers, me and Tuomo, in our band so that we can do everything pretty
much our selves. As mentioned in the previous question, we try to develop
our website to be as informative - and why not entertaining - to our fans
and the media representatives. Now we have covered the basic issues quite
well, and we try to answer our fan mail as often as possible, even twice a
day. We also try to write some stories about our gigs and related
activities. It's nice to see that a lot of people have digital cameras
with them, so we have a lot of live pictures in our site too.
Unfortunately these people take the cameras to the after parties too…
That's not a pretty sight. Future plans for the website are yet to be
confirmed. Development will happen, that's for sure. Some interaction,
games competitions… We'll see.
Anthares (Jumalation): Our pages are very simple. I made the pages very
late compared to the times when we did the demo and stuff. Even I have
some know-how with doing web stuff. I probably am too lazy to update the
pages, so there is our whole demo and little biography and line-up. If
someone wants any detailed info of us, just pop in and ask that in our
guest book or by e-mailing me. I think we are the worst guys to do any
promotion. Only promotion is probably what I have been having in some
certain metal forums and such. Shit, we could need a manager to do such
things for us, I guess...
Bobby Undertaker (Deathchain): Well, our webpage www.deathchain.com
is quite basic stuff. There's a bio, info about us and a media section
containing lots of pictures and stuff. Soon all our demos will be
downloadable from our website. There's also a studio diary from DEADMEAT
DISCIPLES sessions with some crazy pictures. Go and check it out. A guy
from our label made our sites and we are updating them regularly.
Alec (Divine:Decay): Our pages contain mostly the usual stuff and I
think that's enough. The usual sound clips, photo, bio, video, etc.
Paul (Divine:Decay): That's all that is necessary to get your message
through.
Alec (Divine:Decay): We do have a separate webmaster (Hail Sepi!!!)
behind our pages. He does all the updating for us and a lot of other
things also like the video for "Silence Of Decades" (Hail Sepi
again!!!).
Paul (Divine:Decay): We would probably be intelligent enough to do it
ourselves, but like said earlier, we try to avoid thinking.
Alec (Divine:Decay): You would have to learn all the letters, numbers
and stuff. And it´s bit too much for us...
Bilibaldus (Malicious Death): Our pages are pretty simple and we tend
to keep it that way. We have had a big help from Evil Hellman from the
mighty Hellbox who has done those pages and he still updates them. We have
so much to do to those pages but no time to carry them through. I hope we
get some more pics and a full biography on the pages soon. I have a little
knowledge of building pages but I could never do this much as Evil Hellman
has done. So big thanks to him.
Obadio (Malicious Death): The site is still under construction but
right now you can find some member information, pictures, mp3 samples and
a guestbook from there. We added a poll there, too, where you can vote for
your favourite track on the album. Results have been really interesting to
see. We are also finishing our video for the song "Antichrist"
which we will upload there as soon as we can. We had such fun shooting the
video! It is totally hilarious material! But that's another story…
Timo (WhereVictimsLie): I'm personally responsible of
wherevictimslie.com with a friend of mine (a partner in crime @ dahmon.org).
At the moment the site is still in progress, but it's there so that people
could get some info about gigs and listen to our songs. Full site will be
launched fairly soon. At the moment we have two full mp3s available and
some 300+ downloads per month so far (the site has been up around three
months now), which I think is pretty good compared to how little we've
actually promoted the band. Once the full site is up much more information
(full biography, member profiles, lots of photos, more downloads etc.)
will be available. We might put one of our new songs also available as
live version also, that would be cool. Maybe some video stuff too, so keep
on lurking in our site from time to time. I really am the nerd in this
band and I truly understand to advantages of a website, so we/I really try
to keep things interesting, trying to have lots of stuff available through
our website and keep it updated on stuff that happens with the band, etc.
Live stuff (mp3s and maybe even videos) is something that I'd like to see
more with other bands doing and that's why we're going have that available
if possible. We're also going to pay attention to the visual side of the
full site, so once it's out you might be able to see some connection
between the site and the lyrics (serial killer stuff).
Pain Confessor: Free music and all the info you need to know about the
band. Tuomas is the webmaster, so no problems there.
Would you call your music mostly ´Thrash Metal´ though there is/may
be some other hints from some other metal genres as well? What do you
think are some of so-called ´key elements´ of your sound from your own
standpoint?
Anthares (Jumalation): There is no other description for our music
except Thrash Metal!! But I am obsessed to Doom and an old school Power
Metal (don´t even try to imagine any wimpy ´Sonta Arctica´ or
´Helloween´ here or I shall decapitate your fucken skulls!!), too so
probably those elements could pop up in the future through our furious
Thrash Metal madness in a crushing way...
Bilibaldus (Malicious Death): Yes. We call ourselves a Thrash Metal
band. Of course you may find some other elements in our music as well, but
we like to stick to Thrash. I think one main point in our sound is our
drum machine Jerker who is such a special gift to our band. If he has a
bad day we all suffer from it.
Obadio (Malicious Death): Yes! Jerker for instance does these
incredible fast runs with his right hand! But I think our secret and
trademark are Bilibaldus' riffs. They have a kind of a groove to them. His
riffs are timeless and ingenious. We try to keep our music as pure Thrash
as possible, but a little Iron Maiden here and there can add some extra
spice. I think it's important to have some hooks in the songs, too. But of
course you can play Thrash Metal without hooks and end up with a good
album like Razor's MALICIOUS INTENT.
Simo (WhereVictimsLie): I would still call our music as a Thrash Metal.
Our Thrash Metal has been influenced by the Florida / Bay Area bands. I
know, this is just our own point of view that may separate peoples´
opinions of Thrash Metal from ours. There are of course many Speed Metal
elements in our music since I listen to all the time bands like Stone,
Cacophony, Annihilator, etc. As I said earlier, the direction of our key
elements are going in the aggression of Slayer and The Haunted, and
melodiousness of bands like Death and Stone.
Kuisma (Mokoma): I think ´Thrash puritans´ won't even categorize us
under Thrash Metal. We have very many influences from a more melodic shit
and we try to combine what ever we feel fits right to us, our playing and
singing style. Like Tuomo said, we try to do what ever comes natural. The
heavy down tuned guitars and the speeding is of course trademarks of
Thrash Metal, but we try to expand that a little bit more.
Corpse (Deathchain): I would say our music is filled with Thrash riffs,
but there is also some Death Metal sawing included. The vocals are a bit
Tomas Lindberg alike, and the drumming is really fast… We call our music
´Deathrash´. The key elements in Deathchain are aggression, speed and an
old-school feeling.
Bobby Undertaker (Deathchain): Our music is a combination of both
Thrash - and Death Metal. Of course you can also hear some old school
heavy stuff in our stuff. As for these so-called ´key elements´ as you
want to call them, well, I'd say rough and fast riffs, an accurate hard
drumming and ripping vocals. An extreme aggression, that's it.
Pain Confessor: We would not call our music just Thrash Metal. There
are many styles we mix in our music and it would be pointless to label it
as just one thing.
Alec (Divine:Decay): ´Pätkä´ has told me that this music is Speed
Metal and not Thrash Metal. And what´s the reason for that? I don´t have
a clue, but I´ll stick to that.
Paul (Divine:Decay): I think there is a huge difference between Speed -
and Thrash Metal. Speed is faster and Thrash is far noisier. Anyway, we
are Heavy Metal and that's enough.
Alec (Divine:Decay): On MAXIMIZE we even had some vocal harmonies, so
maybe you could call us the Simon & Garfunkel of Speed Metal,
he-he-he!! I actually enjoy the songs with melodic and beautiful choruses
between a heavier and chaotic sound and want to continue with that kind of
style in the future.
Paul (Divine:Decay): Now with 3 guitars I´m sure the next album will
also have a lot more guitar harmonies. Stig (our new guitar player who
joined after MAXIMIZE) came in to give us more solo power and it will be
used in the future also. I´m sure that us being such a young band, we
will develop a more definite sound in time.
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