1. Hey! I will start the interview the same way as with Norwegian The Fall of Every Season. I asked why is it, that Finland is the dominant country in terms of doom metal but not, for example, Norway, Sweden or Denmark. And so I would like to ask you the same question.

A hard one to begin with. Maybe we (Finnish people) just are so gloomy and depressed cock suckers. We really can not tell you the reason. Norwegians rule with black metal, Swedes kick ass with death metal, so we Finns have to be better at least with one thing. Danes? They know how to make a good sandwich.

2. Now I start with questions about the new album, after all, it’s the main topic in this interview. Tell me, are you planning releasing any special editions of „The Quietude Plains“ in addition of standard CD? I mean, recording a doom version of a track by Entombed is really impressive! I read something about this on label's web sites or Metal Archives, I don’t know exactly where, heh.

Yes, indeed. As you already mentioned we recorded Entombed song “Out of Hand” and it will be released on a bonus CD with “The Quietude Plains”. Bonus CD also contains another cover “Murheen Juuret” from a Finnish act Verenpisara. Bonus CD will be only released with the first release of “The Quietude Plains”.

3. The period between debut album and new album wasn’t that long, if we realize that „Deceptive Awareness“ was released in September 2006 and „The Quietude Plains“ in January 2009. There is a bunch of differences for sure, but I’d like to know, what are the biggest differences for you, as the main brain in the band (if I can say it like this)? The listener's opinion is one thing, but the player‘s opinion is another.

First of all, we concentrated on sounds much more, and when our keyboardist Eve Kojo joined band she brought whole new perspective to our keyboard sounds / melodies. But maybe the biggest difference is that songs have more “layers” than in “Deceptive Awareness”. Meaning one can hear influences from different kinds of music styles not only metal, etc.

4. If I compare those two albums I see a sound difference. Newcomer’s sound is cleaner both vocal and the guitar. Was it by intention, or where you recording in a different studio? However, that this sound is more like Ablaze in Hatred, because if I compare it with your colleague‘s album Colosseum, it’s a pity, even it was meant to sound like this.

As already said we took a bit more time with the sounds so we are happy to hear that one can hear the difference. Album was recorded at the same Noisecamp studio as the previous one, but this time we truly wanted the sounds to be right for our music. We used lots of time just by trying different guitar amps. We think that we managed quite well with the sounds on “The Quietude Plains”.


5. Even thought the themes in this style of music are being similar, I must ask this typical question, what is the album’s concepts topic? If there is no concept, what are the main thoughts, that holds the album together?

To be honest we never thought about that. Songs on “The Quietude Plains” are more or less individual stories about suffering and anguish. After “Deceptive Awareness” we found our selves from somewhere very deep, almost at bottom of sea… So there was only one way up, but we don’t know if we made it or not.

6. There were some personal changes in the band, is that right?

You are correct. Eve Kojo joined band as a keyboardist. Actually she’s been playing keyboards on our live shows almost from the very beginning and before going in to studio we decided that she should be “a full time member of the band”. This indeed was right decision after all she did a very nice contribution to the album.

7. Have you discussed some tours with the label? As I know, Firebox is carrying many ambitious bands under its wings, bands that already have name and that are releasing CD’s recently, so it wouldn’t be hard to make the line-up.

We have but as Firebox are a relatively small record company, they don’t have resources to organize such tours.

8. And a little bit about concerts; is it difficult to practice for the concerts? Do you spend a lot of time on rehearsals, or you don’t play live so much?

Our drummer Antti and bassist Miska lives in other city (200km from Helsinki) so training on a regular basis is a bit hard for us, so normally we gather to rehearse a couple of time before shows.


9. Swallow the Sun is being the most popular band in Finland lately, and as I read in one debate on Last.fm, someone said that your music is so incredibly similar (maybe too much) to theirs, but it sounds like nonsence to me. Does it happen sometimes, that someone blames you from this kind of “plagiarism" or something?

Plagiarism is a bit too harsh word that we never heard before. Of course there a similarities with Swallow the Sun, Shape of Despair, My Dying Bride etc. as the genre is more or less the same. After all we are not inventing the wheel again. After all the universal law seems to be that if you do something, it will always be compared to something previously done.

10. By reading your MySpace I have noticed that Mar de Grises were very happy about your new album and also recorded two of yours songs on a concert and put them on YouTube. Because we interviewed them recently, I’d like to ask, is the relationship between you too bands really that close?

The guys of Mar de Grises are absolutely fantastic. We toured with them last spring in Finland for about a week, so you definitely can call our selves as friends. We also had a great opportunity to see them live and we can tell that these guys really can play! We were more than impressed.

11. You don’t use the appearence of metal heads, and this is sure comfortable for non-orthodox listeners. You must be listening to some other music styles in addition of doom metal, not so dark music, am I right?

Juhani: Although I have been growing my hair lately I must admit that one can indeed find also something “not so metal” music from my record shelf, Johnny Cash, Ibrahim Ferrer and Seasick Steve to name a few.

Mika: Despite my looks I listen mostly metal music. There is still a bunch of good bands that I listen who are not metal bands, for example Kingston Wall, Von Hertzen Brothers and Flogging Molly.

12. All from me. Thanks a lot for your time and I hope, many listeners will enjoy your new songs!

Thanks Fastred and Mortem Zine for a great interview, Mika and Juhani greets to all metal heads in Czech Republic! Check out our new album and remember to stay metal as hell in the night.