"In brutality we show no
mercy..."
The
Finnish Death Metal special - Part 1.
Featuring interviews with Carcase Inc., Death du Jour,
Deepred, Exit Wounds, Luciferase, Scent of Flesh,
Slugathor, Sotajumala, Source of Demise, Torn and
Torture Killer.
All Interviews & Intro by Luxi
Lahtinen
Speaking of your song writing - what is the most
challenging thing for you: song or lyric writing (or both!)? I strongly believe that writing both songs
and lyrics for the band ain´t any easy task after all as some may
mistakenly think. It´s actually quite a demanding process from time to
time to find the right things for a song in order to make it ´click´
once and for all if ya know what I´m saying here...?
Miika (Source of Demise): We know that writing lyrics is hard, that's
why we asked our friend A. Nieminen from Dauntless to write them, heh! I
usually have lot of riffs in store, but the hardest part is putting them
together as working structure. That is something we often do together with
Janne.
Laine (Torture Killer): Since our sound is almost totally based upon
groovy riffs, I´d say coming up with those particular riffs is the
difficult part. If we manage to write a good riff with cool rhythm,
usually the vocals end up sounding cool as well, it just drifts over the
rhythm of the riff and beat. We have a "tongue-in-the-cheek"
mentality with the lyrics...ha-ha!! So basically we are more concerned how
the vocal lines are arranged with the backing music rather than what it
has to say. It´s not what you say; it´s how you say it.
Immu (Slugathor): For us it's not as simple as to write one song
together just during one rehearsal session. You used nice words on what
the actual song writing process is. We always have to think very well how
to add one riff after another, how to add complete parts to other parts
again and it's hard! When we manage to make the riffs that follow
naturally one after another, we do know when it ´clicks´ and when it
doesn´t as you put it. Tommi, our guitar player composes our songs (makes
the riffs) and then I make arrangements with drums together with him. The
rest of the band members can of course have and bring in some ideas as
well. Our vocalist writes the lyrics right after we have finalized a song.
We have to make sure that his lyrics suit well with the music (both
atmosphere-wise and song structure-wise). Our lyrics are about death (what
a surprise, ha!), end of all existence and other ´nice things...´.
TF (Death du Jour): Some time ago I had a long debate on the matter if
I do or do not compose music when I make the rhythms to the songs and
finally we got to a decision that I do. It usually seems to be thought
that a songwriter is the 'master mind' in the band and the others just
play along. I think that we have managed with Death du Jour quite nicely
to construct the songs as a band working together, each member adding
their own spices to the stew.
PB (Death du Jour): We experiment quite a lot with pre-made
track-frames by TK more like in the vein of jamming and the tracks
"live their own lives" throughout this process. So, it actually
ain't that hard, developing of tracks takes always quite a lot of time by
this way of working but when the track is completed, there's the sound of
that 'click' even it may take several months.
Aki (Torn): To write and arrange songs is just a skill like a guitar
playing, singing etc. You have to spend some time and really focus on it
to get some results… The hardest thing? Getting it to sound better than
anything else, he-he...
Ile (Deepred): I´m not writing lyrics, so I can say something about
song writing. It´s very simple, sometimes you have that inspiration to do
guitar riffs and when you don´t, it´s just better to not do anything. I
can´t force myself like: "Hey, we need one or two songs in two
weeks...". It´s not working that way at least for me. Well, that´s
exactly what happened on the first album. A song called "Luster"
is made like in a half hour or something in the studio with Teemu. We had
to make one extra song to get a half hour length album and some minutes
were missing from that time. It´s simple song, but I like to play it. Now
Teemu is history in the band, but I used to jam with him at our rehearsal
room and try to do some sickness. Usually I had some riffs that I made at
home or rehearsals and then jammed those out with Teemu and when riffs
ended, we continued to improvise something and sometimes there just turned
out so nice combinations and that you can hear most parts on the album.
Anyway, the riffs have to be someway connected in a good way. There has to
be some meaning in it to put a totally different part after another. I
like it when a song just "flows" naturally and then add
something there what breaks that continuation, something that you kind of
never could expect in the first place. But in general I have to say that
sometimes songs come very easy and sometimes not at all.
Risto (Luciferase): The hardest thing in song writing is to get
"in the mood".
Hell (Luciferase): For lyric writing the hardest part is trying to
explain the other guys why I still haven't come up with lyrics for a new
song. ;) Recently we've changed our song writing process to a more free
way, so to say. Previously Risto wrote an almost complete song at home and
then I arranged lyrics for them. And then we rehearsed the song. Nowadays
the songs are based on simple structures on which we (or actually the ones
who master any instrument, that excludes myself) start to build more
elements, different riffs & arrangements at rehearsals. Also vocal
lines are now partly "written" together, which is a totally new
way of arranging songs for me.
S.M. (Exit Wounds): Yeah, I surely know what you are talking about.
Writing process could strain you a lot especially when you can't manage to
compose those right things into right places in the song. In other words,
usually I got loads of riffs, but it feels nearly impossible to arrange
them into right form. Therefore a whole song writing process may take even
months, at least in my case.
K.P. (Exit Wounds): Sometimes a songwriting process is very easy, but
not very often. Mostly it's a hard and demanding job to write a song that
is like I want. I don't write much lyrics, or at least not for this band.
Lyrics are easier for me to write (?). They somehow turn out quite easily,
though it's a long process. When I write music I often need someone else
to give me some ideas how to arrange it or so. Or at least if I write a
song it might be a better if someone arranges it differently. Or plays
something more to it.
Juhani (Carcase Inc.): Before joining to Carcase Inc., I have always
mostly written lyrics separate from the music without thinking too much
about a rhythm or riff lines. And then I always had great difficulties
arranging the vocal lines to music. But now I am interested in trying a
little bit different approach to the lyric writing in Carcase Inc., kind
of more disciplined way. I try not to write too much about personal stuff,
or about spiritual subjects to which I have in some ways religious ´Luciferian´
(call it Satanic if you wish) sentiments and approach towards. I leave
that to my other projects. Also the lyrics in Carcase Inc. should be
something all members can stand behind and feel comfortable about. At this
point it seems the lyrics will have all kind of strange elements from
death, purity, science and hatred towards all things dirty and filthy,
like human flesh destined to decay for instance. I try to listen to the
riffs, for what kind of "flavour" they have. They might awaken
associations with things like carbon, iron, fire, or mindless mental
chaos. Because the freedom of words to make clear statements is not
needed, I can arrange the vocal lines in my head rhythmically to the music
already when I'm writing the text.
Otsala (Sotajumala): Both of these processes are demanding in their own
way. Sometimes it varies: They can be either a walk in a park and
sometimes just the opposite.
Scent of Flesh: Mostly our axemen Matti and Herkko have done
all music and lyrics. Markus Toivonen did also his part before leaving
the band after our first demo. We´ve always had different seasons both
in song - and lyric writing. Sometimes we just can´t do anything. All
riffs sound like shit and writing lyrics is absolutely impossible.
Suddenly it changes and then songs become ready by themselves. For
example the song "Reign in Violent Perfection" was made just in 4 days.
When writing new songs for your band, do you always try to keep the
main focus on 2-3 as catchy and memorable riffs/rhythms? Do you want to
´spice´ a song with a few ´extra ingredients´ like uniqueness and
originality to give it a face of its own that everyone is able to
recognize as one of the tunes from your band?
Laine (Torture Killer): Torture Killer is definitely keeping up with
the 2-3 main riffs idea. There might be some hooks that we use
occasionally, but they definitely have to fit for the forwardness of the
song. We don´t change the timings within the song just to make it sound
more technical, we are 100% behind a simple structured and therefore a
more accessible and more heavy approach. We basically have no melodic
parts in our songs. I tend to be pretty skeptical about those since it´s
difficult to use them in Death Metal without making it sound too happy. We
have no goals trying to make our music sound original. We use same old
tricks already proven superior by other bands and we keep it up with
those.
Ile (Deepred): Of course you try to make the songs as personal in your
own way, but I can't really say if Deepred has some sort of ´own style´
where to recognize us from the others. I don't compose the songs to sound
in any particular way, they just turn out how they are and continue
forming with time to fit to what is the "Deepred style". The
idea since the beginning was basically just to do as fast and brutal stuff
as possible without any limits.
TK (Death du Jour): When I write songs I try to concentrate on the
rhythms more than doing just riffs that sounds cool. I think that the
basic song structure has to be strong first and then you can add some
spices if needed. We do not put for example a guitar solo to the song if
it is not fitting nicely to anywhere, I think it isn't mandatory to do so
every fucking time. Besides it could do more harm than good to the song
just fucking around with the guitar in every possible parts of the song.
Of course I try to reach some unique sounds and riffs that can be easily
recognized.
Janne (Source of Demise): We don't think that much, just put a few
parts together and if it works, it works. It´s actually as simple as that
for us.
Markus (Carcase Inc.): We might have a different style to make songs
than some other bands may do. First of all, the guitarists make a bunch of
good riffs and then we listen to them carefully and we put fitting riffs
together piece by piece in kind of a logical way. When a riff structure,
bridges and patterns are done, the drummer figures out a good beats for
it. After that the vocalist starts to do his part, etc. This is the way
how we do songs for Carcase Inc., we don't have just one guy who do all
our songs from start to finish. In fact, it would be even a little bit
stupid situation. This is one of those rational reasons why our songs
don´t repeat themselves and every song has an "unique face" in
it and you are able to recognize them easily from the others. On the other
hand in every song of ours has pretty much similarities with some other
songs ´cause the song creators are the same guys and they have own
"hand writing" style which can be recognized very well in every
song. In this type of song making you are provided by a much larger scale
of imagination, at least we think so.
Juhani (Carcase Inc.): One thing that surprised me about this band is
that how much co-operation and group dynamics in the rehearsal place is
used to build the songs. There are ideas flying freely, yet no one thinks
that things have to be done their way. This way the complex songs
naturally proceed to come reality until everyone feels the song is
completed and we begin creating another one. This can lead to surprisingly
complex structures. For example, if we have 2 difficult riffs that don't
quite run smoothly in relation to each other, someone may say: "We
might need a short and simple bridge to weld them together and to make the
transition to another time- signature more fluent". Then Jani (the
guitarist) at instant comes up with a bridge that also turns out to be
complex and super difficult, haha! Then the guitarists have to be extra
focused to make their fingers hit where they're supposed to, and everyone
has to count to 6 beats, for example, before the second difficult riff
begins. So the structures get pretty crazy sometimes, but we enjoy
challenges. We rehearse a lot before we can even play one song from
beginning to end without losing track of thought. This should be good news
for the listener because there's a great deal of both skull-crushing and
brain-twisting to be expected from this band.
S.M. (Exit Wounds): When I compose songs, I focus on all riffs of a
song. I want to hear from all the riffs that they really make the song
work, so I don't want to add any unsuitable or weird elements into a
concept if it doesn´t seem to be important for the song. What sounds
natural, usually sounds good, too.
K.P. (Exit Wounds): I think personally that there should be 2-3 catchy
riffs. I don't want to add too many extra spices into our songs because
the song might become too technical so one may not remember a thing from
it. I don't mean that songs should be too easy to listen to, but they
shouldn't be too hard to catch either. I'm annoyed by songs where are like
ten riffs and only one of the riffs is played twice. I feel like there is
a really bad lack of arranging then.
Otsala (Sotajumala): Our purpose as songwriters is to create a result
that pleases ourselves regardless of its complexity or simplicity. So we
don´t have certain pattern.
Hell (Luciferase): Risto always wants to have some "satrianisms"
on the songs and I try to tell him not to do that, hah-hah!! Seriously,
there have been moments when a new song of ours might partly remind of
some other band (in some member's opinion), but it's nearly impossible to
write totally unique music these days anymore. "Everything's already
done", like they say. We primarily aim to write good songs, not
especially unique or outstanding landmarks of metal music.
Immu (Slugathor): Actually our song structures are more complicated
than that. Sometimes we have had a riff, then like 6 riffs and then the
first riff again and nothing else was repeated! This was just an example
and I even think we have some song(s) where not even a single riff is
repeated. I think this is very twisted, but it's Slugathor! We don't make
things like they're "should be" or so… Slugathor's spice is to
use three certain chords (I don't know them because I don't play guitar)
and put them in different order with different rhythms. Well, of course
it's not as simple as that, but this is the shortest way to put it. Even
so it's not easy to make always so good riffs that kill, even with such a
method that I just mentioned. We also use leads (I don't like to call them
as melodies here), quite seldom though, but when we use them they are used
to cause creepy and dark atmosphere.
Aki (Torn): The song structures are basically pretty simple, a
verse/chorus type stuff, but there's a lot of "extra" riffs
added to make it sound a bit more interesting. I think that if you really
have to "try" to get it sound "original" by adding
some stupid crap like female singers with big tits or even some trumpet
players on top of your mediocre riffs, then you're a bit on the wrong
routes.
Scent of Flesh: That also depends on situation. Sometimes
comes a riff what we want to repeat more often than others, and then we
just add other things between them. Songs being made this way are
usually easier to listen to for the first time. Sometimes we just make a
bunch of riffs that we put together until the song feels ready. This is
a good way to create a chaotic and insane feeling. We never actually
know how a certain new song will be like before it´s completely ready.
Obviously you have been doing some gigs with your band already. How has
the audience response been toward your band so far and would you describe
the elements your live show contains?
Immu (Slugathor): Yes, we've played more than 20 times live, but only
once outside of Finland, in Gothenburg, Sweden and happily we didn't met
any In Flames guys there, ha-ha! The audience there was great and we
shared the stage together with perhaps my actual favourite Death Metal
band Kaamos. Sometimes in Helsinki for instance the audience is totally
dead and sucks, but when we play more seldom in some cities like Lahti we
have good audiences as well. The good audience = lots of headbanging,
moshpit, alcohol, chaos, screaming, blood, gore… We play in the ´Slugathorian
skull- crushing´ way, when we play live we want audience to feel the
power of metal!
Laine (Torture Killer): A few shows yes, mostly it´s been really good
simply because I think we are extremely good on stage. Our style is just
made to play live; very catchy and not too technical, so you don´t have
to stay too focused on the fret board all the time. There´s no special
things we do in live, just killer riffs, synchronized headbanging (like
Twisted Sister... ha-ha!!) and brutal Death Metal.
Hell (Luciferase): The response has been quite variable, as always in
the case of smaller bands. The club gig at Tuska festival last year was an
amazing experience, and then there have been these usual underground gigs
with pretty lame audience. A few perverts have even dared to say after the
gig that our stuff was good, so maybe there's some hope for us after all?
Our visual live show consists mainly of my performance and the whims I
get each time before we climb on stage. Check out the live photos and see
for yourself.
Antti (Deepred): We have played about 60-70 shows this far all around
Finland and also in Europe, Russia and Latin America. Sometimes gigs suck,
but mostly not, tho. The craziest crowds for us definitely have been the
Latin American ones on our tour last summer, but I have some great
memories from some German, some East European countries (like Slovakia),
Russian, but also some Finnish massacres. A Deepred live show basically
just contains around half an hour 100% brutality and not much breaks. We
give all we have on stage and the crowds usually seem to appreciate the
dedication in it. I don´t know what more to say really. A lot of
headbanging, etc., but we don't have some special stage show. Sometimes we
have had some special crap like gasmasks, etc., but it just depends on our
mood and nothing is really planned ever so you never know.
Aki (Torn): Yes, we did a lot of gigs after the record and depending on
the venue and audience the response has been sometimes pretty fucking
crazy. The usual headbanging shit & a couple of covers for spice…
Mikael (Carcase Inc.): Yeah, we have played only 3 gigs so far; one in
our home town last year in May with Torture Killer (one of the best
Finnish Death Metal bands these days!) and Calm Site in Turku with
Maggottholamia, Internal Suffering and Sanatorium. In that gig we had like
30 people, but the people in Turku really liked us, so that was really
cool. The last gig we did in October 2003 with our friends from Nectoterio
and S.E.T., was killer! Our best gig so far…!! It was our debut gig for
Jussi who´s our new vocalist, he really kicked ass!! We sold-out all our
demos that we took with us to that particular gig. People really liked us
in Tampere! As for our live elements...?! Well, lots of speed,
brutality... you know the usual stuff.
Juhani (Carcase Inc.): In a live situation the music does the talking,
so there's no any "specialities". There would not be any room
for a non-musical fooling around after all, we have to stay super focused
and just deliver the goods. I'm not actually that interested whether the
audience watches with their arms crossed or moshes the hell out of
themselves, I have to keep the intensity level to the maximum in any case.
Since the Tampere gig was the first I had ever done as a vocalist and thus
up in the front, I was quite nervous and absolutely pumped up (flooded
actually!) with adrenaline. You should have seen how my hands were
trembling after the show! It was pretty damn insane, I can tell.
K.P. (Exit Wounds): We've played only one real gig. The response was
quite neutral since it was in the local youth's night or something like
that. So I could say that the audience wasn't the best suitable. But it
was damn nice to play live. Our gig didn't contain any theatrical show,
but it was aggressive indeed. We'd really like to get more gigs, but it
seems they're a bit hard to get.
OM (Death du Jour): Shows usually includes sweaty headbanging and
bloody playing…
TF (Death du Jour): Our live shows to this date have been a few, but
some things I'd like still to point out. Our music isn't maybe the best
music to hear on a gig for the first time since it has been said to be
difficult to get into. It would be interesting to get a response from an
audience that wouldn't consist of our friends.
Miika (Source of Demise): We haven't done any gigs yet, but there are
some plans to have some shows in the future. We need to find a session
bass player before that. And maybe a session guitarist, too so I could
concentrate on singing better.
Otsala (Sotajumala): Response has been great. We don´t use that much
of any visualization when performing live. We trust in our music so much,
we don´t see such thing necessity.
Scent of Flesh: Every gig that we´ve done, the audience has
been just the way they should be, banging their heads like lunatics. We
try to make our live performance as angry and as brutal as possible.
Lots of headbanging and mean attitude, and no encores!! Pure hatred from
the beginning to the end... that´s it in a nutshell.
Do you see playing live for your audience as an important thing to get
your band´s name out, or do you consider it just a ´fun and entertaining
thing´ to do without being worried about its promotional values too much?
TF (Death du Jour): Well, I think I'll agree to the latter of your
examples as long as there is not too chaos on stage, i.e. being to drunk
that one can't play, etc.
PB (Death du Jour): I think it's something between those two examples.
Shows have a lot of promotional values, but shows cannot be taken too
seriously and the whole idea of shows is to entertain the audience and
have some fun within the promotional causes. So, we're sober at the stage
since it definitely ain't a good promotional value if all members of a
band are drooling and vomiting all around the stage.
Janne (Source of Demise): As mentioned above, we haven't done live
shows yet, but of course they are important promotion cases, there is no
denying that. But of course gigs are lots of fun, too, mostly you get beer
for free or with a good discount and the result is usually a great
hangover.
Aki (Torn): Of course it's a major factor for promotion, depending on
how good you are on stage, he-he... Basically we try not to drink too much
before shows in order to give 100% out of us for our audience.
Hell (Luciferase): Bad gig is bad promotion. Good gig is good
promotion. But mostly, I think we play live because we like it, so maybe
that is considered more of a "fun" thing than "serious
promotion" in our case, if you think "serious promotion" as
an opposite to "fun". Of course we try to promote the band to
get more gigs, but that's a different story.
Immu (Slugathor): We like to keep our music in the success level as it
is now… We play underground Death Metal for maniacs only! No need for
major label deals, big arena gigs or any shit like that. But we certainly
would like to tour Europe and really hope this would be possible in the
nearest future! Playing in Slugathor is a good entertainment and fun, but
also challenging and for sure serious.
Laine (Torture Killer): I think it´s fun and entertaining. I get
totally intoxicated by the music we play and it gets me on the mood very
naturally. I don´t have to pretend to look anything I´m not. We are not
in a level to start thinking about promotional values when we are asked to
play a gig... and I think none of the Finnish bands are for that matter.
K.P. (Exit Wounds): Playing live is very important way to promote your
band's name. If you happen to play a very intensive and aggressive gig,
I'm sure even a couple of people must get interested in your band and
music. But I think it should be fun, too. If you don't want to play live
or find it annoying, you shouldn't do that at all then, I think.
S.M. (Exit Wounds): To me playing is first and foremost entertaining
and as one could say, a form of therapy. I can't image a situation where I
find myself self-bored to perform this kind of music. If it was so, the
whole thing would be like it was some kind of duty. Then it would suck.
First of all, I'm doing this for myself and then come all other things. On
the other hand, playing gigs with this band, is important as far as its
all promotional values are concerned.
Antti (Deepred): I prefer to think it as something to get our name
around more, to have some reason for doing it even though we enjoy it
ourselves. Because finally doing gigs can be very stressing since it's not
only about going on stage for 30 minutes, but also means rehearsing for
it; travels if a venue is located somewhere out of our area, arranging the
equipment shit, the endless waiting between soundchecks and the actual
show, finally ending up sleeping on someones fucking kitchen floor, etc.
etc. I could go on and on about these things that I really don´t enjoy
anymore about playing live even though the actual playing is usually great
and makes it up for the other shit. Anyway, this is just my personal
opinion, but yes, I'd like to see live shows as something which is good
for us instead of just doing it because it's "cool" like it was
more in the beginning.
Mikael (Carcase Inc.): Yeah, playing live is the best way to promote
your band in Finland. If people don't know you, they don't buy your stuff.
Of course we are very serious when it comes to playing live, but we take
it as a fun, too.
Otsala (Sotajumala): It`s both: Fun and beneficial in a promotional
sense.
Scent of Flesh: We do gigs for both reasons. Nothing else can
give that incredible feeling than playing live does. And it´s also good
to see our reputation as a brutal live band spreading around the globe
like a rapid bushfire.
When are you going to play live next? Any a bit more extensive tours in
sight within the next few coming months or so?
Miika (Source of Demise): No gigs at the moment. If you are a gig
organizer, please contact us.
Aki (Torn): I don't know, no tours in sight, but some gigs here and
there possibly coming soon. We're focused on new material right now.
Hell (Luciferase): Next gigs will take place next week (March 6th) in
Helsinki with Deathchain, Dauntless and Sear, and on May 5th in our home
town Turku, with a German Stoner/Heavy Rock band Gorilla Monsoon + 1-2
other bands. No other gigs or tours in sight so far. We did a three-date
tour with Skyforger, Thyrfing and Barathrum during Easter 2003 and that
was a good experience for us. Other live dates in the past you can check
out at our website.
Laine (Torture Killer): No scheduled dates at the moment. Try to form a
Death Metal band in Finland, and you´ll know what I´m talking about...
PB (Death du Jour): We have some single shows and a mini-tour with
Centinex and Repugnant in April. Hope we'll have plenty of 'em more in the
near future.
Antti (Deepred): The next one will be in Tampere next week (March 12th
I think). Looking forward to it since we've had many months break now,
it's the first one with our new drummer and 2nd guitarist, Tuomo &
Tuomas (and also our first gig was strangely in Tampere, too!). No tours
in sight in the very near future since our priority now is working on the
new album and then start the live assaults again to promote the new album.
We do have an offer to join a few weeks European tour again, starting late
September for which we are pretty positive about, but we'll see how
everything will go for it.
Mikael (Carcase Inc.): So far we have 2 gigs confirmed; one in Helsinki
with Legion (Swe) and another one with Funeral Feast (a very very good
band from Finland!) in Turku in the end of April. We are still looking for
some other places to play, so if somebody wants us to play in their
hometown, just contact us! In September we have a tour with Ocultan from
Brasil and Skräck from Germany around Europe. In 2005 we will go to
Brasil with Evokers and Necroterio if everything goes as we have planned.
Immu (Slugathor): Our next gigs will be together with a Peruvian Death
Metal -veterans Mortem ("damn… that was one HELL of a gig!!"
Luxi likes to comment!). They gave been around since 1986 so it's great
honour for us! The gigs are in Turku and Helsinki 14th and 15th of March
(2004).
As I said we would like to tour Europe, but we don't have anything
planned yet… hopefully by the end of the year, or next year…
K.P. (Exit Wounds): I wish I could tell. But there aren't any confirmed
gigs for us now. There have been some people telling us that they'll
arrange us to play in somewhere, but we haven't heard of them since then.
I think that's a very annoying thing. There are also some people who seem
to be only collecting some demos and promos. They just talk shit! I wish
we would find some honest people who really want us to play live
somewhere.
Scent of Flesh: Our next gig will be in March with Omnium
Gatherum. Tours are impossible for us, because we have to work or study.
Otsala (Sotajumala): The next live performance for Sotajumala will be a
13-gig tour with Rotten Sound and Defleshed, starting on 30.3.2004.
How do you see the importance of Death Metal as its own genre amongst
other genres of metal both for your band and beyond?
Laine (Torture Killer): To me it´s the only genre that matters and the
only scene I actively follow.
Aki (Torn): Death Metal is the most extreme musical art form in
existence. But I really have to tell one thing: Usually when people start
listening to it, they think it's an "opponent" or
"opposite" to genres like Heavy Metal or Black Metal… and most
times those types of people are the trendiest.
Antti (Deepred): Well I really don't know how to measure importance of
different metal genres. That's quite a strange question since it's all
about a personal taste, isn't it? Death Metal is probably the closest to
my heart for me, but that's a personal thing. But I still would prefer a
Burzum album instead of something like Internal Bleeding which people call
Death Metal any day. Some people just get it and most don't. And that is
good.
S.M. (Exit Wounds): For Exit Wounds playing Death Metal was a quite
clear option without focusing on what a current trend or whatever might be
at the moment. Therefore it certainly is an important matter for us. Can
you just ignore the importance of whole Death Metal genre? I think it has
gained a very high status among other styles nowadays.
K.P. (Exit Wounds): Of course I think Death Metal is an important genre
as well as other genres of music. I think there are so many existing metal
genres theses days and every genre of metal is important to someone.
Immu (Slugathor): Importance of Death Metal… Death Metal is a good
style of metal music. One of the best I would say… well, I like them all
equally. I mean REAL metal, so I'm talking about REAL
Heavy/Doom/Speed/Thrash/Death/Black Metal. The other members could speak
for themselves, but I think for all of us our band and Death Metal in
general is a big part of our lives… we can't live without it… and
alcohol, ha!
TF (Death du Jour): Surely the importance of the genre is great, but
that's the same of the other genres as well. Everything has been
influenced about everything and things won't be the way they are in case
some element had gone missing.
PB (Death du Jour): What can I say, but without Death Metal there
wouldn't be a band called Death du Jour.
Juhani (Carcase Inc.): Death Metal has been from its beginning
particularly ´structuralistic´ music, and nowadays it is marching among
the forefront of a progressive music without the most people knowing this,
of course. And if we can express extreme emotions with Death Metal
structures, it will make an astounding impact on an open-minded listener.
Others will unfortunately label it according to their own prejudices
without caring to even try it out, just because it's "Death
Metal".
Hell (Luciferase): As equal to many other (extreme) metal genres,
excluding the stuff listed in question #2. I'm not a die-hard "genre
specific" person.
Otsala (Sotajumala): Of course we see it as the most important genre
because we are performing a band that belongs to such genre. It´s just so
honestly rewarding in all it´s brutality.
Janne (Source of Demise): It´s good that everyone has their own genres
to operate…
Scent of Flesh: Of course it's important, but we think that
it's still just a genre among others.
Why do you honestly believe that we Finns have never had any so-called
´big selling´ Death Metal bands coming out from Finland? For example,
our close and beloved western Swedish neighbors have Entombed, Dismember,
Grave, Dissection and the list goes on forever...? Has the Finnish Death
Metal scene ever been a ´ hot bed´ for Death Metal in the eyes of the
world? Or are we just always a few steps behind the current trends? Or
maybe this has something to do with ´being in the wrong place at the
wrong time´ syndrome. I believe it has never been a question of a lack of
talent, great musicianship, or anything like that. However, let´s hear
what you think of this anyway...?
S.M. (Exit Wounds): Surely there have always been many talented
musicians around here though rarely anything 'big' has happened. Maybe we
are some how used to follow these ongoing trends, so that might be true
that we might come a little bit late into these things. I can see that
something has recently changed and we are getting on the "nerve of
time".
K.P. (Exit Wounds): I agree that we Finns have been a bit 'late' always
or something like that as far as some certain things in metal are
concerned. But that´s how it goes with some other countries around us as
well, no matter what country we talk about here. There´s always some new
country appearing as a promised land of some genre of metal. These things
just appear like that for many reasons. Nowadays Finland seems to be a
very known from 'basic' metal/rock bands. And others follow...
Laine (Torture Killer): I honestly think that the one that has been the
closest of being a big Death Metal band internationally is Demigod. I
don´t think people even know how respected they were in the underground
at the time SLUMBER OF SULLEN EYES came out, and to me the reason not to
make the final step was a combination of being on the wrong label, being
in the wrong country geographically, but most of all I don´t think the
guys were ready to make the necessary steps to push it more. It needs
sacrifices on your daily life and you have to give yourself totally for
your music and it maybe easy to a person not living it yourself to say:
"Why didn´t you do this or that...?". Even until now if you ask
a Death Metal fan in any European country, they will say Demigod was the
best there ever was in Finland. I think Amorphis was pretty close
style-wise with Demigod with their first album, but it evolved to a more
melodic style away from Death Metal, so I don´t count them in the same
category. As I said earlier, music is not science, we´ve always had
technical abilities to play the required stuff, but some are just better
writing at it than others. It may sound an excuse that we live so far up
in north, but that is a big reason not to get on tours in Europe and in a
way that is a big reason why our bands are not that familiar in other
countries. I mean come on... I know bands from Slovakia that would be
considered noise pollution in here that tour months and months in the
Central Europe just because they can jump in their Zastava and you can get
basically anywhere you want in 3 hours.
TK (Death du Jour): I guess the finance things from the bands behalf.
In Sweden there is lot more money involved by the labels.
PB (Death du Jour): I agree with this financial dilemma, but moreover I
think that most Finnish bands don't take this whole thing that seriously
than Swedes, that we're acting this more like a hobby-kind thing, not like
educational or working matter. For my personal tastes, almost all Swedish
bands sound quite a lot the same. Only a couple of bands have created
something unique, eg. Entombed with LEFT HAND PATH. The rest of the bands
are just following the leader…
OM (Death du Jour): As TK started mentioning, in Sweden there's
advanced marketing/producing machinery that puts effort to support rising
bands and to push records globally into customers slot...
Immu (Slugathor): The bands we had were perhaps not as true as some
Swedish ones...? You tell me… why Dismember and Grave never wimp out,
but Sentenced started to make Pop music and Amorphis Progressive Rock?
They had to change their style to sell more records perhaps…? Some
Finnish bands actually got more publicity and success after their
existence… just like Beherit, for example. You're right that we were
late with ´trends´, but on the other hand at least we had some really
original bands! Just think of vokills of Beherit, all those Nordic -vibes
of old Sentenced or gloominess of old Demigod! I think it doesn't matter
that the mainstream didn't notice us that much. The big thing in my
opinion is that there are still some underground freaks out there (like
Funebrarum from the USA) who praise the Finnish Death Metal scene and
claims it to be one of the best in the whole world!
Mikael (Carcase Inc.): There has always been lots of Black Metal, Punk
- and Hardcore bands in Finland, but Death Metal has more or less been an
underground thing for some reason or the other. There were and there are
lots of Death Metal bands in the Finnish underground metal scene, but
people just don't promote them and the bands don't seem to promote that
much themselves either. I don't think it was a matter of being in the
wrong place, in the wrong time. I just guess Finland has never been a
Death Metal country that much after all.
Janne (Source of Demise): I guess it´s this "wrong place, wrong
time" -thing and many record labels have just recently started to put
more effort on this type of bands here in Finland. Now that I think that's
the main reason why Finnish Death Metal bands have never hit it big.
Hopefully that will change, too. I just heard a few songs from
Sotajumala´s new album and I can say that if that does not break it´s
definitely not because of the music.
Aki (Torn): Hmm... Maybe it´s because of promotion and things like
that. And think about a band such as Dismember, for example. How many
years have those guys been around? It feels like they have been around for
an eternity…!! And then can you think about a Finnish Death Metal band
(I mean that has started as a Death Metal band and stayed with the Death
Metal style, too!) that's been around so long with the same level of
activity? Nope, I think you can´t…
Antti (Deepred): Who knows really. Maybe it´s that Swedish light piss
they call ´beer´ there which makes them create all that pissed-off
sounding metal. There's not THAT many exciting Death Metal bands over
there at the moment, but honestly I can't find even that many…or almost
any in Finland either. But overall I think the Finnish metal scene has
great things in a more varied sense of other styles when in Sweden they
always seem to have some big trend and sound which most bands follow, so
naturally more good ones can stand out from the masses (although of course
in Finland, too you have the majority of shitty poser ´Spinefarm-cocksucking-wannabe-bands´
flocking out of every hole).
Otsala (Sotajumala): Maybe it´s just a matter of lack of professional
groundwork when it comes to promoting new releases to markets outside our
home country´s border. We are not expert on this matter so it´s not
possibly to speculate this any further.
Hell (Luciferase): There are bands that have made it big, and which
started as Death Metal bands. Sentenced and Amorphis, for example. And
though not being a Death Metal band, Impaled Nazarene has also gained some
seriously good reputation in the extreme metal genres.
But I don't have an explanation for why any Finnish band hasn't gained
world wide success with Death Metal music. Maybe it's the Finnish modesty,
or maybe it's just laziness. Or maybe both or none of them and everything
went this way only because gods on the Death Metal cloud are actually
Swedish! Jävlä döds runkare! Hails to Ola & Grave!
Scent of Flesh: Hard to say. Of course luck plays an important
role when some bands grow big and some never will. Maybe they´ve always
had more bands in the genre than us that would explain some of it. For
example most of Death Metal seems to come from the USA and I think they
have probably ten million Death Metal bands there.
Are there still reunions of some Death Metal bands you'd personally
like to see happen?
Immu (Slugathor): Let me see… many good bands still exist? The
greatest re-union for me personally would probably be Autopsy (fortunately
we have Abscess anyway) or Carcass (with the SYMPHONIES -era!). I guess
I'm asking for too much.. But you just never know what´s gonna happen,
right?
Laine (Torture Killer): I heard Obituary is doing a comeback and so is
Suffocation so there´s not much left to wish for is there?
Mikael (Carcase Inc.): Death Metal? Maybe seeing Dying Fetus with the
old (1999-2000) line-up. That would be great!! Suffocation has re-united,
so that´s cool. But I would like to see max playing in Sepultura again...
Antti (Deepred): Autopsy, of course!! I don´t really see the point of
grand master Reifert & co. doing that Abscess thing while it's good
stuff, too, but as especially the latest ones are more a return to the
classic Autopsy -style, so I wonder why "waste" such unique and
supreme back catalogue like Autopsy has? Suffocation re-union already
happened, but I haven´t heard how it is yet. Oh yeah and Angel Corpse,
too… though maybe it was good for them to split up on the top.
Especially when the last one, as good at it was, too, still was a letdown
after their perfect EXTERMINATE album.
S.M. (Exit Wounds): Well, Obituary is just this kind of band...
K.P. (Exit Wounds): Actually not.
Hell (Luciferase): Possessed, though it's unfortunately impossible.
Lubricant would also be quite a cool if they played only stuff like they
had on their demos + mini-CD. I heard some unreleased stuff (on a bootleg
video) written after that and it was a horrible ´grunge-like´ shit.
Aki (Torn): Suffocation has been reformed, that´s great! But usually I
don´t care forcreunions, especially when they happen because of a record
deal or money, etc…
Otsala (Sotajumala): It would be great to see a local act called
Paraxism live once more. On bigger scale, Obituary´s re-union would be
great to experience and if we recalled correctly it will become reality in
the near future.
Miika (Source of Demise): I don't like the re-union idea at all. I
heard that Obituary will be doing a re-union. Well, let's see what
happens.
Janne (Source of Demise): Only band that I´d like to see doing
re-union is Death, but for obvious reasons that wont happen.
PB (Death du Jour): Better let 'em all rot…
Scent of Flesh: Not really. When older ones fall, there will
always be enough new great bands.
What do you hope that you will achieve with your band within 2 years or
so? What do you expect the future will bring to your band besides this
´fame & fortune´ thing, of course!! ;)
TF (Death du Jour): It would be great to get a debut CD released. I
have never personally been influenced in such a big musical occasion and
am really looking forward to it.
Janne (Source of Demise): What do you mean besides fame and fortune?
That's all we´re after! I mean those cop-model sunglasses and cowboy
hats, free coke and lots of chicks and bucks! But seriously, some decent
record deal would be nice, touring, stuff like that.
Laine (Torture Killer): We´ve just started talking about continuing
with the label we have for the second album so my goal is definitely the
second Torture Killer album. To make it as good as we can, if we can do
that, I´m satisfied enough.
S.M. (Exit Wounds): Nothing but fame and fortune for me, heh! I mean a
record deal would be the main achievement for us.
K.P. (Exit Wounds): I agree on that. It sucks to self-fund your
releases. It'd be nice to get a good promotion and publisher to our music,
though.
Aki (Torn): Just trying to make some great music, that's all I need...
Better not to expect too much and get surprised than expect much and get
disappointed.
Risto (Luciferase): New record deal.
Tuomas (Luciferase): Lots of new songs and improving as a musician.
Hell (Luciferase): Shame and torture!
Ile (Deepred): I hope to be first Death Metal band to play in the
moon... no just kidding. Within two years I hope we could get one more
full-length and do more live shows in places where we have never played
before. That is one of those nice things playing in the band; you reach
places where you never thought to go just by yourself. But anyway we´ll
see what happen in the future...
Immu (Slugathor): To release 2nd album and also release our debut CD in
USA, tour in Europe and South America or USA. Hell yeahhh…!! Or to play
even at some festivals would be cool. Now I'm thinking of some other fests
than this fuckin' Tuska festival in Finland.
Otsala (Sotajumala): We hope that our debut album will receive positive
response and hopefully we will have opportunity to be an opening act for
some bigger name. And of course our purpose is to develop our music in to
more intensive direction.
Juhani (Carcase Inc.): Hopefully make such strong albums that people
will find them even far in the future and be amazed by them.
Mikael (Carcase Inc.): I guess to achieve some respect from both people
and bands would be cool and maybe one day we could live only for the
music. These days we all have our daily jobs and playing Death Metal
doesn't pay our bills you know? It may take over 2 years (or more) to make
something out of this, but hopefully one day we could live only for the
music and pay our living by playing it.
Scent of Flesh: New album, more gigs, longer hair. We
abandoned that dream of fame & fortune at the same day we decided to
play Death Metal - and not Love Metal, hah!
Do you have any advice or tips for younger musicians who would like to
create their own Death Metal band? What should they keep in their minds
first and foremost if they want to make an impact on Death Metal maniacs
in order to earn indelibly their respect eventually?
TK (Death du Jour): Just do your own thing and believe in it.
PB (Death du Jour): …as long as it's Death Metal =) And rehearse,
rehearse and still rehearse and still a bit more rehearsing.
OM (Death du Jour): Retune your instruments to boiler room frequencies
for starters…
Immu (Slugathor): Stay brutal (I mean honest) for yourselves and don't
listen to poofters (I mean others). Don't try to do the same that has
already been done once and being repeated all over again… it just
doesn't lead you anywhere!
Laine (Torture Killer): If I knew I would be doing it myself... ha-ha!!
Janne (Source of Demise): Well, my advice is to respect roots, but
still try to create something new, and the only one you have to be true
for is yourself.
Miika (Source of Demise): Of course learn your instrument as well as
you can.
S.M. (Exit Wounds): Just do what everybody else does: Rehearse with
patience. Everything else comes with it afterwards, I guess.
K.P. (Exit Wounds): They should be patient. As they said the Rome
wasn't built in one day, ha-ha!! Song writing skills are supposed to
develope as the time passes. Patience means everything…
Aki (Torn): Spend time on working your music and bettering your skills
because as you know there are always many people doing the same thing
better.
Antti (Deepred): Well, just do it only if you feel possessed by the
Metal of Death. If not, do something else. You won't get chicks or money
with it. Oh yeah, and arrange at least the first practice, maybe even make
few songs (!) BEFORE making that ´super-hyper professional´ website with
promo pictures, etc. For too many it seems like the first fucking thing to
do which is something just absolutely ridiculous!
Mikael (Carcase Inc.): Make a band with serious people who are really
into playing the shit if you really wanna make a band work. Don't waste
your time with people that don't who don´t have the same goals that you
have. Keep it underground and you gotta live for the scene. Also promote
your band as much as you can.
Juhani (Carcase Inc.): The most important thing is the music itself.
When you're sitting on your bedside and jamming with your guitar, that's
the most crucial stage and there can never be too much time spent on that.
Do not hurry with dollar signs in your eyes. Make riffs, make songs, throw
the songs away, make better songs... Eventually you'll develop your own
style.
Hell (Luciferase): Like in every case, if you love a certain kind of
music and want to create some of your own, keep two things in mind:
Acknowledge the past and support the present. I mean, it's always
necessary to respect the roots (nothing to do with ´retro hype for the
sake of retro hype´).
Risto (Luciferase): Take time to learn to play ("like a
clock"), learn to listen others' opinions and create songs from
yourself.
Otsala (Sotajumala): "Strive ever for more…", that´s it.
Scent of Flesh: Well, we´re not actually battle-scarred
veterans yet, but we can say that a hard training and patience are most
important. When we didn´t get recording deal with our first demo, we did
another one during the same year.
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