Hailing from Finland, here is one of my favourite bands. Henri and Ville, the two heads of Moonsorrow speak...
I'll begin this interview commonly and ask you to tell us a bit of the history and the concept of Moonsorrow, so...
I'll begin this interview commonly and ask you to tell us a bit of the history and the concept of Moonsorrow, so...
[Ville] I and Henri formed Moonsorrow back in 1995 as we felt a strong urge for expressing the paganistic corners of our minds by the means of music. Soon after the formation we recorded our first demo "Thorns Of Ice", but we didn't ever release it and so our actual debut was the recording of 1997 called "Metsä". After those days we took a step forward and our music moulded into a more symphonic kind of metal, resulting to finally in early 1999 released demo "Tämä Ikuinen Talvi". By that demo I partly knew what to expect, but still the response for it somewhat surprised me. Four record deals were offered, and we picked the one of Plasmatica Records. Our debut album is scheduled for spring 2000 but of course anything can happen... That's about it, I think. What comes to the concept, it's all about folklore, nature and all that stuff: Pagan Metal.
There are a lot of influences in Moonsorrow. Sometimes, it reminds me of Golden Dawn, sometimes, of Emperor. Where do you take the essence to create your art ?
[Henri] You are right, there are lots of traces of our fave bands of that time in Moonsorrow's music, like Emperor, Enslaved, Golden Dawn etc. And to be honest, sometimes I feel there are more influences of these bands on the new demo than there are creations of our own. When we composed the music on "Tämä Ikuinen Talvi" it was logically meant only for satisfying ourselves and thus some similarities to abovementioned bands couldn't have been avoided. So we didn't care so much of originality but of making intense, heavy and melodic metal music. Nowadays Moonsorrow concentrates on their own riffs and music, and to reveal something of the upcoming material; it will be even more folk music based and more melodic. But of course anything can happen...
In the past, there wasn't many Finnish bands; but now, this scene has exploded with Azaghal, Horna, Gloomy Grim,Gorewinter, Children Of Bodom and many others. What do you think of Finland ? Is it the response to the attack of Norway a while ago ?
[Henri] Actually, I'm not so fond of Finnish metal bands. Some are really good, like Thyrane, Unhola, Tenhi or ...and Oceans, but most of them rely more on their image than the actual music. Sad isn't it? Anyway, I think that the Finnish scene has become better than it was a couple of years ago when everyone wanted to play Norwegian-styled Black Metal. Once again, the laws of natural selection have spoken: only the strong ones have survived.
[Ville] Just as Norway a while ago, Finland is now experiencing a wide-scale inflation on Black Metal. Too many bands so easily placed in the same category, especially when only a few of them are worth mentioning, will sooner or later have people bored to the underground. In my opinion everyone wouldn't need a band to be involved, in fact the underground would be in better condition if only those who can offer something new for the scene performed music. But of course there are always born great bands among the gray mass, like Gorewinter (which is actually formed in 1995, not just recently).
A lot of people have said that the scene is dead due to the number of shitty bands existing. But, as we can see, some individuals are really invested and keep the underground aspect of the scene to hold it alive. What do you think about today's underground scene ?
[Henri] The underground scene is full of different individuals, which makes the whole aspect very interesting. Thanks to the Internet, we are now able to communicate with each other in a much wider scale because we can now contact people from all around the globe faster and easier than earlier. This, of course, leads also into problems, because the more people you meet the more people are potential assholes or rip-offs. Though, 95% of people I've been in contact with are cool and honest people who support the true underground. Ave!
You're an active guy I know. Please give us a summary of your activities
[Ville] To make it brief, besides my projects I also (together with Henri and two other guys) run a small distribution service / demo label called Meat Hook Productions and an underground 'zine called Meathooked. Any information on the subjects and/or our free distribution list can be asked from me directly, as a more profound description would require too much space. What comes to my more important musical projects then, there are bands called Thornfrost and May Withers is which I play the drums; the less important (and usually inactive) projects of mine may be too many to mention.
[Henri] Isn't anyone out there interested in my activities...? (sob)
Time to end this intie. Give us your future plans and conclude as you want.
[Henri] Mega thanxx for this interview, it has been a pleasure to answer your questions. Moonsorrow is now officially signed to Plasmatica Records (Swe) and our first full-length album should be out in spring 2000. Until then... keep on waiting, I promise you won't be disappointed! Also watch out for another project in which I play, called Finntroll. Hail!!!!!
[Ville] Eternal hailings for featuring Moonsorrow on your newsletter and on your compilation. Keep up the cool underground work and keep looking for our debut album. Everyone interested just get in touch, we sell our demos for $5 each and, as mentioned, also have our free distribution list.
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