Hi Mia! Thanks for having me!
You have a huge fan base not only in your native country of Finland but all over the world, but for those of our readers that aren’t familiar with WINTERSUN; How would you define your music?
Wintersun is a unique mix of different flavors of metal, including influences from melodic death metal, black metal, power metal and folk music to movie scores just to mention a few. White all the three albums released so far have been a bit different from each other production-wise and also musically, they are all still share with similar majestic and melancholic melodies, and extreme attention to detail to arrangement and instrumentation. Wintersun is not restricted musically to do any one particular thing and on the future albums we are looking forward to explore again totally new musical territories. We like to call Wintersun EPIC METAL.
Referring to your latest album release “The Forest Seasons” from 2017 I can hear a lot of Power metal, and Symphonic Death Metal, But also the lyrics are very much “folk metalish”. The fans that has followed you know that this album was crowdfunded. Was this your choice to have such a broad variety in your music, or were you taking “fan requests” in deciding the sound of the album?
Indeed, there’s again a wide variety of influences on The Forest Seasons. Jari, who writes all the Wintersun songs, rarely tries to please others with his music, rather just sticking to making music that sounds good to himself and when his happy with it then sharing it with the rest of the world.
The forest theme of the latest album came about quite spontaneously as Jari was jogging through a forest nearby where his living. Some of the folky influence was kind of obvious fit to the forest theme but interpreting the four different season musically it made sense to build contrast with different musical styles and arrangements to give each season/song it’s own feel.
How do you work within your band writing your music? Who is the brain behind it all? Who writes the lyrics and who writes the music?
Early form of Wintersun started as a one-man project by Jari Mäenpää, and some of the musical ideas for the first album were already written around 1995. In 2004 Jari and drummer Kai Hahto recorded the first Wintersun album together and by the end of 2004 Jukka Koskinen had joined on bass and myself on the guitar to form a live band and to help working on the sophomore album (TIME I, released in 2012). All music and lyrics on all Wintersun albums have been written by Jari.
Some of your songs have many symphonic details and I wonder how that comes to life? Are there members of the band playing some additional instruments? Or is it all pre-recorded and mastered on a computer?
The orchestrations are made on the computer. Jari self-studied a lot of orchestrating while working on the the TIME I and II albums, being influenced mainly by epic movie scores. We are hoping that one day we’ll have a chance to also work with a real symphonic orchestra on some occasion.
Any new material / album in the making for WINTERSUN?
Jari is currently working on several new album projects side by side and we are all eagerly waiting what he’s going to come up with. From what we’ve heard the material sounds very promising! We are now starting a longer break from shows and taking time to put together our next release, while also planning to continue our crowdfunding project.
Well, now I (and our readers) have learned a little bit on how you make your music in recordings. How about your live shows? You have been playing some festivals around Europe this summer. What has been your best moment?
This summer we’ve been playing selected festivals and club shows celebrating the 15th anniversary of the first album’s release and it’s been great getting to play the first album back to back! Every show is somehow special but personally I’d say Summer Breeze festival in Germany and sold-out hometown club show in Helsinki were some of the most memorably ones of this summer so far.
And now you will be visiting Denmark for the first time ever at the venue Gimle in Roskilde August 30th with a headline show! What can the Danish audience expect from your live show?
This show will be our last this summer and also the last of our two-year long touring cycle that started in summer 2017. It will be a 15th anniversary celebration as well so we will play the full first album back to back plus some other selected tracks. It will be a very special high-energy show for sure and there will be some surprises as well!
And what do you expect from the Danish audience?
Really looking forward to to playing there for the first time! It’s supposedly going to be quite intimate show with good amount of people and we can’t wait to rock and have great time with the audience!
Can the attendants of your upcoming show in Roskilde, Denmark look forward to some new material from WINTERSUN?
That’s very much possible… 
Thank you Teemu, for taking the time to talk to me. Is there anything you would like to tell our readers about your upcoming show, and why they should experience WINTERSUN live?
Like mentioned above, this will be very special show, possible one of the last times we play all the songs of the first album in a while. We’re never holding back during our live performances but as we’ll be entering an undefined break afterwards with no other shows currently in the calendar in a long time, I think this show will have a very special energy and feel to it! We’ll be partying on stage and probably even shedding a few wistful tears after the show is over. Thanks for reading the interview and hope to see you at Gimle!
Our PowerofMetal.dk team wishes WINTERSUN welcome to play their first show ever in Denmark August 30th! You will NOT want to miss this! Our PoM team will be there for sure!
]]>Thank you!
What did you and the band do to celebrate?
First of all, we took some time home to rest, ahah, Some quality family time and great food are the best for us. No hard partying and such for sure!
I know, we’re boring…
This time around you decided on an Italian title for the album. What does it mean exactly?
“Veleno” literally means “venom”. We liked the idea of paying tribute to our home country by using our native language. Also, we love how it sounds: delicate but also menacing at the same time.
Could you tell us about the theme surrounding “Veleno”?
We address many different themes actually, from drug abuse to religion, but while writing the lyrics we realized all the songs had a phantom thread, a ‘fil rouge’ that connected all of them. That thread is the idea of ‘poisoning’, a concept that can have so many different layers and meanings. Our analysis is centered on the relationship between the man and the nature, intended both as natural environment and ‘human nature’. That ‘poison’ can be physical, like drugs, or metaphorical, like religion or superstitions. But it all starts from our tendency to establish our supremacy over Nature, overcoming our own limitations artificially or superimposing a ‘meaning’ over what’s happening around us in order to control it, to dominate it. But those are pure illusions, a series of self-generated, self-inflicted ‘poisons’ for mankind.
How does it differ from its predecessor, “King”?
This is more unpredictable in many ways.
“King” was treated as a whole song, so to speak, where you had different ‘acts’. The instrumentation, the arrangements, the overall vibe were intended to be absolutely homogenous, almost like a ‘rock opera’ in a traditional sense, as we presented a series of defined characters within a very specific story. That’s his strength, of course, and that’s why people love it.
On this one, instead, we had many different themes to cover without the restraint of traditional storytelling. Therefore, we chose to experiment with instruments, techniques and musical influences that we had never explored before. And we deliberately decided not to put any limitation to our inspiration, that’s why it’s probably the most varied album we’ve ever released.
How was the process like and how long did it take to record and compose the album?
The process was more spontaneous than ever before. As I said, stylistically we felt more free, but also our approach to songwriting was different. Before “Veleno”, we always wanted to take a break from tours to focus solely on the album. That gives you more time to compose during the day, but also puts a strong constraint on the inspiration flow, since you have to respect a tight schedule in order to release the new album and hit the road again. Sometimes you look at the blank page and inspiration is not there, but the clock is ticking… This time we decided to take our time and write when we felt inspired, in between tours or even while touring. So, unlike before, “Veleno “ has taken years to be completed. Almost three, to be more specific.
What were the easiest and most challenging parts of getting this album done?
Well, getting an album done is never really easy for us, hehe. Every bit of the process requires time, commitment and attention. That’s how we like to work, we don’t know any other way to do it. We’re truly committed to what we do.
The hardest part is probably… setting things in stone. When you realize the time is over and you have to deliver it’s always hard, because you’d keep working on things forever. We’re perfectionists, and for a perfectionist there’s nothing worse than the delivery date.
After returning to your guitar and vocal duties for the first time on an album since 2009, how has the process of writing changed for you, if at all? (The process of writing being the guitarist & vocalist vs. being the drummer)
No, the process didn’t change at all. Me and Francesco Ferrini always took care of the songwriting and creative process for the band and even when I was playing drums live I was still composing other stuff as well. Let’s say that the big change for me is in the live shows.
I’m sure a lot of fans appreciate the fact that the digipak includes a Blu-ray release of your gig in Perugia, especially for those who haven’t had the chance to see Fleshgod Apocalypse live. When did you start tossing the idea around for filming and what did it take for it to come to fruition?
I think having a live album, or video, is a true milestone, especially for a band like us. Live shows are a crucial part of our ‘message’,, they’re deeply connected with the music itself. As well as costumes, videos, photos, album art etc. We wanted to show everybody, including people who haven’t had the chance to see us live, what you can expect from us on stage. And that idea had been in our mind for years, so we’re really proud of what we achieved. It took so much time of preparation, especially because we had a full strings quintet with us, a full stage production, Co2 geysers, confetti and seven different cameras. Coordinating everything was really exhausting, but the result is worth the effort!
Here on Power of Metal, we like to take the time to get to know our favorite musicians. Please tell us some bizarre facts about yourself?
Ahah, help! I don’t know. Well, I’ve never played a video game in my life, never watched a TV series, and I don’t know anything about soccer. That’s why Veronica, Francesco (Ferrini) or Paolo respectively have my back whenever I end up discussing something like that with someone I don’t know. All I have to do is smile and say “Yes, sure!”, ahah!
What do you do when you’re not doing anything related to the band?
If we talk about other working activities, me and Francesco Ferrini have a music production company called Midas Productions. I invite everybody interested in a collaboration to check out our portfolio and services. In my free time instead, I like to spend time with my family or wander into the wild nature. I’m a huge fan of outdoor and winter sports.
What plans do you have for the rest of the year, touring and otherwise?
We already have a few festivals in the summer, including Graspop.
This fall we’ll start our worldwide campaign for the album, starting with Japan, Australia and then Europe. We have plans for next year as well, but it’s still top secret or now. We’ll also keep working on new video clips and, of course, music for the next record. It’s never too early!
A quick message to your fans?
I want to thank everybody for the insane feedback we’re receiving on the album. It’s moving, really. We owe you everything!
Thanks again for taking the time to answer our questions, Francesco. Have a wonderful day!
]]>What are your thoughts and feelings about the response you have received about the album?
We are very pleased and overwhelmed by the positive response after the album release. It´s been a while since we last dropped music so there was a bit of nervousness regarding how our fans would respond, but it has been amazing! It is a bit surrealistic that people around the globe are listening to the record!
Many of the members is Rendezvous point are also members of other bands a well. Can you tell our readers what made this album come alive at this exact moment?
Everyone in the band has a burning desire to make this band grow and go forward, but sometimes these things can take a lot of time. Each song is processed over a long time and the concept had to grow and develop naturally. Another factor is that we don’t live in the same city so we have to meet up every once in a while when everyone is available. That might slow down the process.
Can you let us know the story behind the album?
The story behind Universal Chaos is different stories from a persons perspective living in the 20th century where you have to grasp in everything that happens in a million miles pr hour. The constant pressure from social media to pursuit perfection and total happiness slowly drags us in to a big depression where in the end nothing matters and everything collapses. That was a bit dark and general, but yeah that’s the idea behind the lyrics. The music describes these feeling and thoughts in a fitting way, I think.
The artwork of the album is quite colourful. Does it have a special meaning?
It´s meaning is to enhance and describe the music in an artistic way. We’re fascinated by the eternal universe and the music often describes that just as the artwork does.
Who and what has inspired you musically on this album?
That is a big question and I cannot answer for us all, but we come from many different musical backgrounds. We take inspiration from music we like, not depending on genre and try to create something unique and special. We share interests for composers like Hans Zimmer and other composers that operates in a more classical genre, and off course we listen to more heavier stuff. We haven’t been inspired by a certain band or artist, but we let our differences come together in our own music.
Which song was the easiest/hardest to write on this album? And how come?
Apollo was maybe the easiest because we had the chance to make it during regular practicing together and while touring Europe. Every other song has come alive via Dropbox sessions. – The romance of making music.
Is there any track that means something special for you personally on the album?
All the songs has something I can relate to and some of the stories are quite personal, but the song that means the most to me is maybe Digital Waste. That song is the pinnacle of the problem of this digital world we live in.
It’s been Four years since your last Album “Solar storm” was released.
What is the biggest difference (if any) between your last album and your latest release ” Universal Chaos “?
We’ve grown and developed as musicians, humans and songwriters. It´s bigger and more powerful.
On a personal note.
Who is topping your playlist at the moment? Anything you can recommend to our fellow readers?
Eric Whitacre, Nothing but Thieves, Hans Zimmer and Benea Reach.
Finally, can you tell us a little about what is in store next for Rendezvous point? Where can fans experience the album live, in the nearest future?
We are going on a European tour in September with Vola from Denmark. We cannot wait! We’re also playing at Progpower in November.
Thank you so much for your time. Do you have any last words for your fans and our fellow readers?
To those of you that are RVP fans, thank you so much! We really dig that you dig us. To the rest; Check us out, it will be worth the time spent.
Keep spreading the good word of Prog!
First of all I would like to thank you for taking the time to talk to me and for letting our readers know more about MANTICORA and what is in the future for the band.
No problem at all, Mia. It’s my pleasure.
MANTICORA has recently been on a European headline tour. Could you let us know, in a few words if you could, what your experience has been?
It was a little bit of ups and downs. Some shows went quite well, and at other shows, a bit more audience would have been great. Overall, it was very cool though. Tight playing and a great delivery of the new material at all shows. Die-hard fans at most venues, making it more fun to play.
MANTICORA are playing some festivals during this summer. Could you let our fellow readers know where they will be able to see you live this summer/autumn?
We’ve been booked for the following festivals: Copenhell/Denmark, Dokk’em Open Air/Netherlands, Wacken Open Air/Germany and Evoken Fest/Japan.
After the last show in Japan, there’ll be no more live shows in 2019, as we’re focusing the rest of the year on fine-tuning the upcoming album.
MANTICORA is far from new to the metal scene, but why do you think there is such an explosive interest in your band at the moment?
Explosive might be a small exaggeration, but I do believe that we’ve kept up the consistency of delivering good albums and high-octane live shows and no matter how many other bands have thrown in the towel and broken up, we have kept up the hard work and taken the good with the bad, so to speak. The north American tour we did last fall, cost us shitloads of money and there are a lot of activities within such a band as ours, that just cost you money all the time. But we consider it an investement, so that bookers, agents, festival bosses etc., get the name shoved in their faces all the time, and it looks like the never-ending efforts are beginning to pay off.
MANTICORA´s latest album release To kill to live to kill was based on the book you wrote with the same name. Do you personally think the interest for the band has to do with your release o the book?
Nah, I would be a complete bastard if I claimed all the attention, just because of the book. It has of course helped that we have actually done something larger than anyone has ever done before in Danish music history. People do notice something like that (now we just need the generel press to actually open their eyes), but I think all the amazing reviews we had on the music of this album helped a lot, as well as the release of the book and the fact that we took absolutely no shortcuts, be it production, cover artwork, set-up, video or any of the other aspects around the release. If you deliver a top-notch product, you tend to get the best reaction.
Could you let our fellow readers know what the process was to write the music for To kill to live to kill? Because I can understand that the book has been in the making for quite some time. Was the music a natural part of it, or did the music come to life after the book was already written?
The initial idea was to base the next album(s) on the story I had, brewing on my computer. Kristian and I decided (on a summer morning, after a LOT of gin) to give it a go with this concept after talking for several hours about the future of the band. I told him, I had begun developing a book, from writing away some issues I had), and that we could actually do a pretty amazing concept double album, if we had the balls for it. Kristian immediately said: “No dealines, Lars! I don’t want any kind of label, telling us to have this part ready in 2 months, and that part ready in 6 months, or else I am out of this project. I finally want the time we need to make everything perfect for us to say that we delievered 100%”, and we shook hands on finally making an album where we took as much time as we wanted to write the whole thing, even if it’d take 10 years (it ended up, taking 4 years).
So from the beginning, the book and the music were developed at the same time, meaning that they influenced each other all along the way. Of course the book was the medium that dictated the music on an 80/20% scale (which was also the case on our “Black Circus” albums), but I did have to re-write some stuff in the book at certain occasions, when a certain riff just screamed for changes in the writing. I think I finished the book (and began translating it into English), when we were 75% done with the music, so it has been a process of writing both products at the same time.
Have the other members of MANTICORA been a part of To kill to live to kill? Or was this a “one man project” of yours?
I think the answer above says it all. Everyone have been a part of the process, although I did the actual writing of the book myself. However, the guys actually took some decisions for me in the story-line, as I also wanted them to be as involved in the book as possible.
Will there be a sequel? To live to kill 2 (too) Album or/and book?
We’re right now working on the 2nd part of the album (it was meant as a 2-album concept from the beginning – we even talked about doing a triple-album concept), so we expect a release in 2020 as we already wrote the 2nd album when we did the first. A release where we can close the story on a musical level. The book is final and there won’t be a follow-up on that one. So album one is about the first half of the book and album 2 is about the last part of the book.
Regarding Manticora, where do you see the band heading? Where do you think/hope you will be in 3 years? 5 Years?
As all other bands, the aim is to live off the music and that’s what we’re working on, but if it ever happens, is another story that takes place in the land of near-utopia. It depends on so many things and outside factors that it’s not even in our own hands. What I know is that we’re continuing as long as we’re having fun, doing what we’re doing, and even if the last year has brought us some extremely stressful situations and a few buckets of lukewarm bullshit, the light at the end of the tunnel could be closer than we think and the fun times within the band have never ceased, no matter how dark the future might have looked at some points.
As stated earlies you have some live shows coming up in the near future in different festival scenes. Any plans for another headline tour with MANTICORA in the near future?
Nope. We won’t be touring until after the second part has been released (at least that’s not the plan).
Will there be any changes in your live lineup in your upcoming shows? We have seen bassplayer Kasper Gram and drummer Danni Jelsgaard associated with MANTICORA lately. Are they both a part of your live lineup in your upcoming shows?
Kasper is a steady part of the live line-up and he’ll most likely also be part of the fine-tuning of the new material, which he’ll be recording as well when time comes for that. Danni was hired to do the European tour and he also played with us at Karmøygeddon in Norway in May, but we’re using Lawrence Dinamarca as our live drummer now (the guy, who recorded the drums on the first part of this concept). He’s a beast on those drums and lifts the band to another level, when he’s behind the drumkit. Manticora has never sounded better in the 22 years, we’ve existed as a band!!
Lawrence will also be recording the drums on the new album, so it’s natural for us to use him as much as possible for our live shows, to keep him updated on the style of music we want him to play.
Thank you so much for your time, Lars. Do you have any other comments or statements for our fellow readers?
No problem at all – thanks for the intie..:-)
To all the readers: See you at frontrow, when we play those summer festivals. You don’t wanna miss this!
Shehili is a warm wind coming from the desert in Tunisia
And the artwork is connected to the name of the album?
Not directly, the artwork is about a lot of symbols we like :
The eye symbolizes defense against the evil eye and bad luck, also representing blessings, power and strength.
The symbol of oriental architecture references to the beauty of the country, as well as its multi-faceted culture that can be found in Tunisia. The architecture in Tunisia often expresses the connection between buildings and spirituality with ornamental decorations.
Who and what has inspired you musically on this album?
What is wrong in this world, what could be right, and our fans around the world
Which song was the easiest/hardest to write? And how come?
I can’t really remember that, sometimes you have a melody, a structure, and then you gonna spend weeks on the arrangements, sometimes it’s the other way you never know until it’s done.
Is there any track that means something special for you on the album?
Shehili, and that’s why it’s the name of the album too, we tried to make it look like a long story, something big and fragile at the same time, something powerful. That’s also why it’s place like that on the album when you usually put the one you don’t like in the end, this is clearly not the case here. Now they kinda all mean something, Dance, which might seem light when you don’t really pay attention to the lyrics, isn’t that light at all, that’s a song with a positive message but based on things that are really wrong on earth.
It’s been Three years since your last Album “Legacy” was released. What is the biggest difference (if any) between your last album “Legacy” and your latest release “Shehili”?
I think Shehili is the logical way to continue the adventure after Legacy, even our video clips are linked. We just worked harder, faster, spent more time on details to deliver something better.
Finally, can you tell us a little about what is in store next for Myrath? Where can fans experience the album live, in the nearest future?
Well now that the album is out, we’re working on the release of our first DVD, should be long now, and we of course have shows soon, festivals first with Sweden Rock, Wacken, Hammamet, Tokyo, then we’ll go on tour in Europe in November.
Thank you so much for your time. Do you have any last words for your fans (Myrathists) and our fellow readers?
Thank you for your questions ! Is it cheesy to say we love you all ? is it obvious that no matter where you are, who you are, what you believe in, we all love you and we’re really proud and blessed for having your support, your messages every day…
We don’t call you Myrathists because you’re our lil army, you’re a part of Myrath and we really hope you will like Shehili as much as we enjoyed writing it for you.
For all the readers and those who don’t know you, we hope to see you someday soon to give you some warmth of our Shehili. See you soon, we’re coming !
AN EVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT
Love it or hate it, the sound of Sadist is instantly recognisable. And yet the band has never shied away from musical experimentation. Formed sometime around 1990, Sadist play Death Metal with strong influences from Progressive Rock.
“Spellbound” is the most recent album from these Italians. The album is inspired entirely by the films of Alfred Hitchcock and is another gem from the band. Of course once the album was out, the band went on the road to promote it.
While touring Europe with I Am Morbid, Vital Remains and Atrocity, I pinned down Tommy Talamanca (guitarist, keyboardist and co-founder of the band) for an interview. It was the 3rd England date of the tour and before we discussed the new album, I asked Tommy what he remembers of the previous time he played here….
T.T.: Yes, we were here something like 6 or 8 years ago, supporting Suffocation, and we played this same venue, ‘The Underworld’. It was a very nice experience. It’s always a pleasure to come back here because England is the kind of country we don’t go so often to play. So we were glad to grab the opportunity to spread the music of Sadist around. For the previous two [England] gigs, it seems the people enjoyed the band, even if we are a little different to I Am Morbid or Atrocity or Vital Remains. Those bands play more straightforward Death Metal, whereas we are a little more experimental. Until now we’ve had a good response, let’s hope tonight we’ll see a similar reaction.
When Sadist started out, back in the early 1990s, Morbid Angel had already released their first couple of albums. So I wonder how much that band was influential in shaping the musical path of Sadist….
T.T.: I think we were influenced by several different bands from the late 1980s and early 1990s but since we were probably the first European Death Metal bands to use keyboards, you can say that an even bigger influence was Nocturnus, from the United States – they were the first Death Metal band ever to use keyboards. And Sadist were the second…or third…to do so.
Death Metal is a kind of music you can recognise from the drumming and from the riffing of the guitars, amongst other things, and these are all elements you can find in Sadist’s music. In that respect you can also recognise influences from classic bands such as Slayer and yes, Morbid Angel.
Let’s speak about “Spellbound”, the most recent album from Sadist. This is a sort of concept album where each song is about a different film from Alfred Hitchcock. Italy is famous for horror film makers, such as Argento, Bava and Fulci. So how come you chose to base an album on the works of a USA/English film-maker instead?
T.T.: We chose the master of horror film-making. Even Dario Argento once said that Hitchcock was the ‘master’ for him. For us it would have been quite obvious to talk about Dario Argento or Bava because they’re Italian. But we wanted to go to the roots of this film genre. In the same way, this album is for Sadist a return to the roots of the band’s sound. Even with the album’s horror themes, we are returning to the basics. Horror films have always had an influence on Sadist, starting from the films of the 1960s and 1970s.
In that context, I suppose a major musical influence has been Goblin, right? [Goblin were a Prog Rock band, founded by keyboardist Claudio Simonetti, who composed the music for Argento’s horror films.]
T.T.: Goblin have had quite a huge influence on us and it was a great pleasure to have had Claudio Simonetti play on one song on our album “Sadist” of 2007. So of course horror film soundtracks have been a huge part of our sound because we were influenced by Prog music of the 1970s but also from horror films.
Songs such as ‘Birds’ have melodies that I felt were directly inspired by Goblin….
T.T.: Hitchcock’s films don’t really have a connection to Rock music because Rock music hadn’t yet been born then. So we thought it would be interesting to re-interpret his films with Metal soundtracks. It would have been too easy to just cover the soundtracks of films – such as those of Argento – which already used Progressive Rock music.
How did you go about choosing which films to tackle? Were there any disagreements within the band on this?
T.T.: The original idea for the album came from Trevor, our singer, who is a huge Hitchcock fan. When he came up with the idea of doing a whole concept about Hitchcock’s films, he came with some lyrics that he had written about the topics of the films…films such as ‘Birds’, ‘Psycho’ and ‘Mountain Eagle’. And then we tried to re-interpret those lyrics. So the lyrics came before the music.
After that we sat down together in the studio and tried to compose the right music for those kind of lyrics, while of course also thinking about the film itself.
You mentioned ‘Mountain Eagle’….the film was one of Hitchcock’s earliest films and has, to my knowledge, been lost. So on what material did you base the song? Did you actually have an opportunity to see that film?
T.T.: Trevor had an opportunity to actually see the film and the rest of the band read its script. And then we tried to figure out what kind of lyrics and later what kind of music could fit with that film. Of course it’s our own interpretation. Who knows what Hitchcock would have thought about it? Maybe he wouldn’t like it or maybe he would like it,,,we will never know.
[Tommy then elaborated on the sounds specific to “Spellbound”…]
T.T.: For “Spellbound” we went back to our early influences, the same we had in “Above The Light”, the first album of Sadist. So we put a lot more orchestral arrangements. We also used an acoustic piano…we found quite an old one that had a scratchy sound but that was really fitting for the album. As much as possible we always try to work with acoustic instruments even if when playing live, it’s easier to use keyboards because you cannot tour with, for example, a real acoustic piano or with all the percussion instruments we use on Sadist’s songs.
You know, I recently saw an interview with Rob Halford, of Judas Priest, who confessed how difficult it is to sing and play an instrument at the same time…and for this reason he heaped praise upon musicians such as James Hetfield and Sammy Hagar. Of course you have developed similar skills in that you play both keyboard and guitar, even when performing live. What advice would you give to someone wishing to develop this level of co-ordination?
T.T.: Well, it’s actually like playing a piano. With a piano you use two hands and usually the right hand takes care of the melody and the left hand takes care of the chords. Of course sometimes that changes, sometimes they split or they twist but normally that is the way it goes.
With regards my way of playing, when I was little more than a kid…maybe I was 15 years old…I was already studying guitar when I started studying piano because I wanted to improve in harmony. About that time I saw Stanley Jordan, the incredible Jazz guitar player, who was playing guitar like it was a piano, using tapping techniques. Of course I had also seen Eddie Van Halen sometimes on stage playing guitar and keyboards but he never played the instruments simultaneously.
There’s also Tony Macalpine who plays both guitar and piano…..
T.T.: Yes, there’s also Tony Macalpine of course who does something like that. Anyway, that’s how it all started. Little by little I improved my technique and I managed to play both instruments together most of the time. And it’s funny because when I write music nowadays for Sadist, I’m already figuring out how it’s going to be on stage because of course it’s not very simple [to play both instruments together]. But if you arrange the synchronisation of your hands in a smart way, you can manage it.
When you see musicians who have some physical handicap, they improve their way of playing in interesting and creative ways, because they cannot play in the ‘normal’ way. For me, playing both instruments is quite a difficult thing to do so I have to find compromises and that changed and improved my way of thinking.
And in turn that changed the whole sound of Sadist….
T.T.: I guess so because I write most of the music and most of the melodies of Sadist so what I said probably influences the sound of the band.
By the way, I heard that Andy Marchini is not with Sadist any more.
T.T.: Yes, he left the band.
What happened?
T.T.: Well, that’s life. Being in a band is like being in a family….sometimes you might decide you want to leave your wife or you want to leave your parents…sometimes you might decide you want to change something in your life.
Andy was with Sadist for many years…
T.T.: Yes, he was with the band since the beginning. He had left the band for a couple of years and then rejoined the band once again in 1997.
So who has taken his place?
T.T.: Now we have a new guy, he’s a very talented guy. He’s younger than the rest of the band…and that’s a good thing because it means we have new energy…new blood…in the band. His name is Andrea Nasso. He is not as such from the Metal scene….
That could be a good thing…it could represent a different way of thinking about music…
T.T.: Yes, it’s a very good thing. We had done some auditions in our neighbourhood and found this guy who had studied Jazz bass in the States [U.S.A.]. He had some good techniques but he also played Metal in the past. He can offer something different to the sound of Sadist and that’s what we wanted. We didn’t want to replace Andy because we cannot. I mean trying to find somebody who has a similar style would be useless…it wouldn’t be interesting for us. Since it’s a big change in Sadist’s history, we took the opportunity to take a different step forward. Let’s see what the future will bring. Now we are touring with this guy…it’s the first tour with Sadist for him but everything seems to be going very well. We are very happy with him.
He probably had to learn the songs very quickly…
T.T.: Yes, but he’s a smart guy.
[The attitude to try to keep music evolving is not new, as Tommy explains while looking back at the repertoire of Sadist…]
T.T.: You know, the first thing that crosses your mind when you think of Sadist is a chameleon…a creature that always changes its skin. So if you compare each album together, they all sound a little different. For instance if you compare “Above The Light” with “Tribe”, you have two completely different albums. The same with “Tribe” and “Crust”. We all love “Crust”, we are very attached to that album because we think it was the best mix between aggression and the Progressive influences and still it remains very heavy.
Of course we know that in some countries “Tribe” is very popular. For instance as in Italy or in France. But it’s funny, when you go to Germany or when you go to Russia, all people go crazy for “Crust”. So it means that every country has different tastes, every audience has different tastes. And that’s quite nice for us because we can change our set-lists according to what country we’re playing in.
So have you done the same thing with the current tour…fine-tuning the set-lists depending on which country you’d be playing?
T.T.: Well, since we’re sharing the stage with some extreme bands, we tried to include the most extreme stuff we have in the repertoire of Sadist…the fastest and the heaviest songs. I reckon most of the audiences on this tour want to listen to extreme Metal music and that’s what we are giving them. We have so many songs written over a long career that we can easily adapt to different audiences.
Tommy, it has been a real pleasure speaking with you.
T.T.: It was the same for me. Thank you.
Here’s a chance for you to tell our readers about your new album Void. But could you please start off by introducing the readers to the band and give a short version of the biography?
Having played together since our early teens, we’re a tight band with a lot of fun stories, experiences and stupid little anecdotes between the 5 of us. We started off as friends, wanting to jam a bit of metal, and eventually we wrote our own songs and had a band name and everything. We have since then polished our live set by playing at Wacken Open Air, Copenhell, countless Danish towns and here and there throughout Europe. Behind us are over 300 shows, 2 full length albums and a few demos, and we can’t wait to now bring you our third album: VOID, out may 10.
And now onto Void… track-by-track, what inspired you, what topics are you dealing with, what do you want to express with this song etc.
1. Fork Tongued
This song is about being untrue, mostly to yourself, but also to the people around you. If you lie once, it’s easier to rationalize that it’s okay do it again, but it all ends up in a ‘river of deceit’, where it’s basically impossible to stop being untrue, and ‘the guilt is killing’ the person leading this life.
2. Sleepwalkers
If you have seen the music video, you already know what counter-trend ‘Sleepwalkers’ is an endorsement of. If not, here we go: ‘We’re not living life enough to die’ – because we, as a collective are so caught up in our smartphones, our tablets, our smartwatches, and our tv’s so much that we barely live, socialize or feel anything at all, anymore. This is of course an exaggeration of reality, but we want people to look up sometimes, and actually do stuff, instead of feeding their candy-crush addiction to the extreme. .
3. Restless Nights
This is a personal one and reflects how it feels to be coping with insomnia and all the things, that comes with it. If you’ve felt it before, we hope you can relate.
4. Crown Of Thorns
Crown of Thorns is about being unable of moving aside bad habits, daily rituals and negative behaviour that you pull yourself through, either on a daily basis or in the long run. It also concerns admitting how you treat yourself and living with or reacting to that.
5. Happily Apathetic
When you’re so sad, that all you want to feel is nothing, then you’re ‘Happily Apathetic’. It may be a ‘camouflage state’, that you are using to cover up your actual emotions, but indifference is sometimes all you want to feel, because it seems easier.
6. A Gap Of Sky
Also in the theme of taking care of yourself (or not doing so), ‘A Gap Of Sky’ is about how your restless nights turn it to panic attacks, and how you try to look for an opening, or a way out.
7. Sedate Myself
Here we talk about dulling your brain, sedating whatever issues are present, even though it’s not necessarily the most constructive thing to do. There’s a cultural thing going on, with everyone patching everything up with medicine, instead of looking at the underlying problems, and ‘Sedate Myself’ is about that. Of course, this song is not just about pharmaceutical medicine but also has a couple of metaphorical layers, that you can interpret yourself, as you like.
8. Pain
Sometimes the best messages and themes are the simplest, and even though we react to pain differently, we all have experienced having the feeling. The song also includes metaphors and exaggerations, but the theme is fundamentally feeling pain.
9. No Man Is An Island
Ironically the song is about how ‘No Man Is An Island’, but the protagonist has a habit of pushing himself away from the crowd. The song is both about unity and solitude and both about hope and despair.
10. Stronger In The End
‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ is another major cliché, and as with pain, the theme here is a simple one: adversity will leave you stronger in the end. A clear and powerful message.
11. Void
Void, nothingness, blackness, where everything is accumulated into nothing in particular is the theme underlying theme of the album, which is why this song was a good fit as an album title as well. This song is the last, as it wraps a bow around all the other songs, with a finishing holistic touch. It is about getting whirled into the void, whether through consumption of sedatives, flashing screens or whether it’s through depression or stress, or whatever else reason that may cause anyone to feel this way.
Can you tell us about the concept behind your artwork?
The artwork resembles a lost person who basically IS the void. The dark cloud representing the nothingness, a dark torso representing the human body as a catalyst for emotion and lastly the hands holding the torso, as a reaction to distress.
Which song was the easiest/hardest to write? And how come?
Lyrical and instrumental writing are two different camps in our band, and often times it’s the songs that are easily written (instrumentally) that turn out to be the catchier ones. Sleepwalkers was down pretty quickly, and it was the one song we all initially agreed on as a single.
Is there any track that means something special for you on the album?
All lyrics are written out of personal experience or own contemplation, so there’s a natural investment in all of them, and we’ve had a hard time debating which songs are better… In short, all songs are special, but no, there is not one that is particularly important, over the others.
How different is your latest album in comparison to your previous ones?
This one is definitely more dynamic. We’ve played more with different tuning, tempo, and balance in all songs, and have implemented clean singing, for the first time ever, so it is a more dynamic album in general. More is not always better, but in this case, it is.
Any new bands you would recommend our readers? What are you currently listening to most?
We’re creatures of habit, so go listen to bands we’ve loved for some time already: Cabal, Bring Me The Horizon, Unseen Faith, The Midnight and everything by Architects. If you want something completely new from the Danish scene, go ahead and check the Prime Collective roster with lots of great bands on it.
What’s next on your list, any upcoming tours and gigs planned?
We’re playing Smukfest this summer, and then we got a tour coming up in September – mostly DK jobs, but we’re also going a bit abroad to play a few festivals.
Thanks a lot for your time. Any last words for your fans and our fellow readers?
If you have any questions to us whatsoever, please don’t hesitate to DM us on Facebook og Instagram – we love talking to our fans and hear, what they have to say about our music.
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Here’s a chance for you to tell our readers about your new album Black Frost. But could you please start off by introducing the readers to Nailed to Obscurity and give a short version of the biography?
Raimund: First of all: Thanks for having us. Nailed To Obscurity was formed in 2005 by our guitarists Jan-Ole Lamberti and Volker Dieken. After several line-up-changes in the very early days, the line-up in 2019 consists of Jan-Ole and Volker as well as Carsten Schorn (bass), Jann Hillrichs (drums) and me as the vocalist. Our style is rooted in melodic death metal but is very open progressive influences as well as dark metal and sometimes even gothic-like ingredients. We released four albums so far: “Abyss…”, “Opaque”, “King Delusion” and our newest record “Black Frost”. Currently, we are on tour with Amorphis, Soilwork and Jinjer in support of our newest album.
And now onto Black Frost… track-by-track, what inspired you, what topics are you dealing with, what do you want to express with this song etc.
- Black Frost
- Tears of the Eyeless
- The Aberrant Host
- Feardom
- Cipher
- Resonance
- Road to Perdition
Raimund: This is really a good question. We put so much effort into our new songs and tried to make it the best work possible. To dig deeper into all single tracks, we recorded a track-by-track. I would recommend these ones to answer this question:
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcywhR8L8kk&t=24s
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-CHBN4eboY
Can you tell us about the concept behind your artwork – who made it etc. and how important do you feel it is to have a cool artwork?
Raimund: The artwork was done by Argentinian artist Santiago Caruso who previously worked with us on the artwork for our album “King Delusion”. We send him the instrumentals in their very early stages as demos plus the lyrics to give him a little inspiration. I also told him about the idea behind “Black Frost”. He took this idea and added another social-critical aspect. In his version “Black Frost” is a disease that only attacks human beings but not flora or fauna. The images that he sent us were just mind blowing and really nailed the atmosphere and the mood of the songs. An artwork is very important for an album. It is the first impression that a potential listener gets. And we think Santiago’s work is really outstanding.
Who and what has inspired you musically on this album?
Raimund: It is life in general and especially personal experiences from myself and some friends that inspired me the most. The lyrics are very emotional and it’s sometimes just a catchphrase or a single word that becomes the basis for a song’s lyrics.
Ole: I think the biggest influence always comes from our environment, things that we went through ourselves, or friends of ours or simply thing that we heard about that move us, etc. Of course also music we listen to inspires us, old music that has always been an influence, but also new music, that we just discovered.
Which song was the easiest/hardest to write? And how come?
Ole: That’s really heard to say. This time we wrote all songs parallely at the same time, so I can’t really remember which one was the easiest or hardest to write. In general songwriting can be really hard and there don’t seem to be so many “easy” moments
Is there any track that means something special for you on the album?
Raimund: That’s a really tough one, because all the songs are very meaningful for me. “Road To Perdition” has a special meaning for me but I keep the story behind it for myself. It is strongly related to a friend of mine and a rough time in my own life.
How different is your latest album in comparison to your previous ones?
Ole: I think it’s not totally different, but a logical next step in the evolution of the band. It’s a bit darker and even more atmospheric, I would say.
Who are topping your playlist at the moment? Anything you can recommend to our fellow readers?
Raimund: During this tour, it’s one particular Soilwork-song that catches me every night. It’s “Stalfagel”. This song is so catchy. Besides that, I would go with the current Obscura-album “Diluvium”. I think, it’s their strongest work since “Cosmogenesis”!
Ole: I recently discovered the band Idle Hands. They haven’t released a lot yet and it’s a bit rough here and there, but there is something really cool about that band.
Finally, can you tell us a little about what is in store next for Nailed to Obscurity? Where can fans experience the album live, in the nearest future?
Raimund: As of now, not too much is confirmed but we’ll play a lot of festivals and we hope to play as many shows as possible in support of “Black Frost”. Keep checking our website nailedtoobscurity.com!
Thanks a lot for your time. Any last words for your fans and our fellow readers?
Raimund: It was great to play Denmark again during this tour with Amorphis, Soilwork and Jinjer and we hope to be back as soon as possible. Thanks for all the support from our Danish fans!
Let me make one thing clear…the new album from Chariot is a killer. More of the world needs to capitulate under the might of this album. Driven by this objective, I took a walk down to the pub to meet up with Pete Franklin, lead vocalist and guitarist with Chariot. He also co-founded the band back in 1983, formed the band Dirty Deeds (with pre-Judas Priest guitarist Ritchie Faulkner) before then reforming Chariot around 2004.
Besides discussing “The New Horizon Dawns” Pete makes some intriguing revelations such as his connection with a pre-Iron Maiden Paul Di’Anno and his life’s crossroads with Steve Harris who lived within walking distance from him, in this the North Eastern corner of London.
Happy viewing!
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Here’s a chance for you to tell our readers about your debut album Timeweaver. But could you please start off by introducing the readers to the band and give a short version of the biography?
Sunless Dawn is a progressive metal band, inspired by bands like Edge of Sanity, Opeth and Ihsahn.
We started playing together in 2016. Shortly thereafter, we had our first three concerts in the Wacken Metal Battle, which we somehow managed to win. Having been a band for only half a year, we suddenly stood on a stage in front of 10.000 people at Wacken Open Air in Germany – no small feat!
Afterwards, we spent two years writing and recording our debut album Timeweaver, released under Prime Collective.
And now onto Timeweaver… track-by-track, what inspired you, what topics are you dealing with, what do you want to express with this song etc.
1. Apeiron
The grand intro to our album! The track is packed with heavy riffs and a massive wall of orchestral sounds.
The lyrics, an excerpt from An Essay on Man by the poet Alexander Pope, suggest that we are perhaps not as much in control of our lives as we would like to think.
2. Aether
Aether was our attempt to write a single, but we somehow still made it too long to be played on the radio, heh.
We chose it as the first song after the intro (Apeiron) because we feel it adequately represents the rest of the album: It varies between soft, dreamlike passages, catchy guitar-leads, and death metalesque riffs which never fail to make your head bang.
The lyrics were inspired by an episode of Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson. The idea is that we were much more in contact with the stars and planets of the night sky earlier in our history; we used them to navigate, track the passage of time, and guide our fate. Today, people rarely consider what happens outside of Earth, and even if they wanted to, light pollution has blocked out most of the night sky.
3. The Arbiter
The song kicks off with a heavy intro riff, accompanied by our drummer massacring the double bass drums (that guy never skips leg day). Probably the heaviest song on the album actually – it would be cool to hear a dub-step remix of this song!
The ‘arbiter’ refers to Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist in charge of the a-bomb research project in USA during WW2. The last sentence of the song is perhaps the coolest one-liner on the album: “The sky is lit by the hate of man”.
4. Biomorph I: Polarity Portrayed
The intro to the 3-part song!
5. Biomorph II: Collide into Being
The heavy part \m/
6. Biomorph III: Between Meadow and Mire
The prog part!
Biomorph is probably our favorite track on the album. It’s an extremely complex song, lots of quirky riffs in odd time signatures and passages which could just as well be found on black metal, funk or jazz albums. Midway through Biomorph, you will also experience a beautiful choir part, sung by professional opera singers.
Lyrically, you witness the first-person perspective of a cyborg (very sci-fi!). The cyborg has had so many human parts replaced by mechanical “upgrades” that it starts to wonder whether humanity left in it/her/him. We were inspired by the manga Ghost in the Shell, which takes place in future Japan, where biotechnology has allowed humans to enhance their cognitive abilities, strength, etc. In our eyes, this seems like a very realistic future scenario, and it comes with a lot of ethical problems.
7. Grand Inquisitor
You gotta have a fast and mean song with a catchy chorus, right? It contains some of our heaviest riffs and is quite taxing to play! #chops
The lyrics are based on a chapter in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyoder Dostoyevsky, in which one brother tells the other a story. During the time of the Inquisition, Jesus returns to Earth to perform miracles and gain the adoration of the people. The Catholic leader of the Inquisition, the Grand Inquisitor, captures Jesus and orders him to be burnt alive. The majority of the story consists of the Grand Inquisitor’s monologue to Jesus about why Christ is no longer needed, and how he has failed mankind.
8. Erindringens Evighed
This one’s a little bit more laidback – it’s kinda the ballad of the album, with an extended thematic middle section. The music really serves as an illustrative background to the very romanticized imagery of the lyrics.
This is the only song on the album in Danish, with lyrics taken from Søren Kierkegaard’s Enten Eller. In this passage, Kierkegaard criticizes Hegel, another well-known philosopher. This is a gold nugget for people interested in philosophy, but we mostly chose to include this passage on the album due to its poetic beauty.
9. Sovereign
Some will know that Sovereign also served as our demo a few years back, and for good reason. All the elements that make up Sunless Dawn are presented here, and we’re glad we didn’t skip it for the sake of making a shorter record.
The famous book Leviathan by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes inspired the lyrics for this song. The book argues for the need of a state ruled by a Sovereign, since in the case of an ungoverned world (what he calls the ‘state of nature’) it’s ‘war of all against all’.
How was your first “real” studio recording experience?
We worked with a bunch of skilled and experienced people, so we really learnt a lot! It was also a somewhat scary process, because whatever you’re playing is being immortalized on the album, so it better be good. Luckily, it turned out great, and we’re very much looking forward to doing it again.
However, the recording process was also a bumpy ride at times. During vocal tracking, our lead singer had food poisoning, so the time in between takes was spent puking, hah. Also, when we were recording drums, we were delayed because stuff kept breaking.
Could you please tell us a bit about the artwork – who made it, what’s the concept behind it etc. and how important do you feel it is to have a cool artwork?
The artwork was created by Eliran Kantor, a German artist who has made covers for Testament, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Atheist, Bloodbath, and many more. It is often the case that your first impression of an album is from seeing the artwork, hence it was important for us to find an artist who was capable of accurately translating the our music into artwork. Eliran certainly lived up to this task!
We sent Eliran some demos and lyrics, from which he came up with the concept of a group of people “digging up” the night sky from the sand beneath them. Since the atoms in our bodies originated from fusion processes within the cores stars and later during supernova explosions, there is a sense in which the people on the artwork are responsible for their own creation. It’s very grandiose, but so is our music!
This is your debut on the progressive death metal scene under the banner of Sunless Dawn. It has already received rave reviews from the critics – The Power of Metal.dk webzine included J. What are your own feelings on the positive reactions?
We are absolutely thrilled by the positive reception Timeweaver has received! We were convinced all along that the music we were making was epic, but now we also have outside confirmation of that fact 
However, there are still a lot of metal fans on this planet who we have yet to convince!
Is there any track that means something special for you on the album?
It almost feels like picking out your favorite child, heh, but if we had to, we’d go with Biomorph. The songwriting and execution shows off the best of our abilities, and recording the track together with a group of opera singers in an opera house was a fantastic experience. Once we become rich, we would love to make an animated music video for this track.
What’s next on your list, any upcoming tours and gigs planned?
Our next three gigs are with the Prime is Giving tour in February – a fantastic initiative for raising money to the Ronald McDonald House. Check out the events on Facebook!
You can expect to see us on a DK tour during fall, and hopefully we’ll travel through Europe next winter!
Also, we’re already working on the follow-up to Timeweaver, so stay tuned!
Thanks a lot for your time. Any last words for your fans and our fellow readers?
Sunless Dawn loves you!
