Suomi Finland Perkele / August 2000

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Answered by Henri, Ville and Marko


Whoever might have heard the previous recordings of Moonsorrow, i.e. the demos ”Metsä” and ”Tämä Ikuinen Talvi”, cannot miss quite a difference between them and the album. The reason for this is simple - time.

- That demo was more or less exceptional; there was too much of that black metal -stuff on it, lectures Henri, the man behind most of the compositional work in the band.

- Enslaved-stuff, points out Tarwonen - the group’s drummer.

- Well, there’s a little bit of that, too.

- A little...? A pinch, perhaps.

- Anyway, after the demo we concentrated on some new songs. I made some ten new songs, but they appeared to be too similar to the demo material and so I just discarded them all and begun composing a bit different songs. Like thos with which we started - slightly slower and not that blasting. More like...

- Quorthon, Tarwonen fills in.

- So there it eventually came from, laughs Henri.

- So then we made songs, got a deal from Plasmatica Records from Sweden and the rest is history. We left for Kemi to record the album.

Indeed - in the beginning of a hellishly cold February the trio stepped into the (in-)famous Tico-Tico Studio of Kemi to work with their debut album. Of the colourful journey we are enlightened by the band’s fresh reinforcement, a man also involved in e.g. Gorewinter: Baron Tarwonen.

- There was this priest. The priest didn’t like us - and neither we did like him. The priest finished second... so much for the priest. But there were good flicks. Braveheart!

How did Braveheart inspire you in the recording process?

- Just guess! ’twas a remarkable source of feeling. The situation is this: we leave Helsinki for Kemi where the temperature is some -60 degrees. A town where nothing happens. Then we go to somewhere to rent Braveheart, so how much could that inspire in the next day’s studio sessions - go ahead and ask.

Ok. In Kemi you can watch Braveheart and get inspiration, what else?

- I asked the guys of Thyrane of what could we do here. And then we boozed, Henri laughs.

- It was a nice time in the studio, but otherwise it was extremely boring there, lectures Ville who is responsible for the vocals, reliefed of that the task is over.

- The good side of it was that there were no other activities which would’ve disturbed. Now we concentrated efficiently on the recording process. We also boozed, of course.

- We drank with the guys of Thyrane and watched an Immortal-video. That was great! We also watched some live shootage of Primal Fear...

- The singer had blue jeans that were tighter than life itself, recalls Tarwonen.

- Tighter than life itself...?

- Well, life’s at times quite tight.

Enough for confessions about life and its tightness, for you know, at times you even have to drill into the matter. Nine days in studio under the supervision of Ahti Kortelainen and ”Suden Uni” is the title of the band’s first full-length album. Can you be satisfied with it?

- Plain shit, Ville states abruptly, but soon bursts into laughter.

- Not really, it’s just as goos as we were capable of at the moment. The next album will be much better.

- It will be a killer, Henri confirms.

- At this point I have to say that Ahti really knew his business. There were six days for the recordings, two for the mixing and one for the mastering. Should we say that the drum parts were ready already on the second day.

- Yeah, and the rest of the time I was just hanging out in the studio, drinking beer and laughed at the others, laughs the meritorious drummer at the studio sessions.

What did Ahti like the material he was recording then?

- Ahti wanted to play Jaws there somewhere, but we voted that idea out.

- In fact Ahti liked it.

- He didn’t even have to take his grandmother’s picture forth. So there for the musicians.

- Play better, boys. Anyway... let’s say that we’re responsible for the productional side of the album ourselves.

So satisfied of the result they were that the time for the recordings of the next album is already reserved from Tico. Next summer the band is returning to Kemi.

A funny anecdote: There was a table in the studio on which several guests had wrote their messages, among others certain Henri Sorvali: ”Learn to play the accordion - I can”. Over all these signatures there was written with a thick, black ink pen: ”Fuck you all, wishes Impaled Nazarene!”

- They made their point clear.

A band that claims to play epic folk metal and sings in the Finnish language sounds pretty interesting. Fully serious they claim to be anyway and after having listened to the album I sure believe that.

- Bathory stopped making those viking albums and Moonsorrow is here to replace them, the drummer states boldly with a less serious approach. Or not.

- This is a completely reasonable band - no pointless joking, Henri continues from the idea.

- Based on that we make music which is based on good metal and with which we mix a bit of folk music influences.

So there is a point within the band?

- There is a point within the band. We represent the pre-christian way of thinking - let’s put it this way. And because this pre-christian way of thinking fits the music. These influences we mix thus derive from the same era. So in a way they - music and lyrics - walk hand in hand.

- A metal band we are for certain. Yeah, there’s accordion and such, but that’s just a spice. It has that different shade - hopefully due to that we’re something different than anyone else in this country.

When they were in Kemi after all and already boozed with the guys of Thyrane, those guys had to end up visiting on the album, right?

- Correct. When other bands always take these ”special guest vocals by Blastmor of Thyrane”, we have ”special handclapsquad”. That is, Avather and Blastmor of Thyrane are clapping on our album.

There were still other visitors in the studio to bring their own little spice on the record, namely Janne Perttilä of Circus Of Flesh was in the scenes for two days. His part on the album is a share of the pompous choir on the last proper track. Four singers, everyone of whom used four tracks. A big choir.

Braveheart = Total Bal-Sagoth + Freedom

When there’s a track called ”Köyliönjärven Jäällä” (On The Ice Of Köyliönjärvi) on the album, it shouldn’t be too hard to guess of what this band is singing about. Of mystic journeys into the cosmos, obviously. I however let the lyrical genius of the band - the Moonsorrow himself - Ville to stand behind his acts himself. What in the world are your lyrics about?

- The subject is this little fight between christians and heathens. I simply get pissed off when thinking how the christians cruelly demolished all heathen cultures, that of Finland including. Every once in a while it gnaws my mind and I have to write about it. But there are others too, like nature, which is a nice subject.

The last actual track on the album before the outro carries the title ”1065: Aika” (1065: Time), so what’s the message here?

- In 1065 there was a battle on the bridge of Stamford which is written into the books of history as the battle where the vikings eventually were defeated by the christians. Although also vikings were already rather christian at the time. This song is symbolizing the final demise of the vikings. I added it to the context because vikings are a well-known heathen culture and it symbolizes well how the christians crushed all pagans from Europe and elsewhere too.

- You won’t find Satan from our album, Tarwonen declares.

In addition there is a short résumé of what the song is about in English by the lyrics.

And what does it sound like

Bathory, Enslaved, Slayer, Einherjer, Emperor, Gorewinter... Must’ve I asked of good bands - the list is almost endless. If we don’t directly count the grandest musical influences but more like the best bands of all time according to personal musical taste, can you name the tight top three?

- Bal-Sagoth, King Crimson, Slayer... I can’t say that they are the three best, but three of the best, Ville ponders.

- King Crimson, Kiss, Morbid Angel, Tarwonen slams without hesitation.

- Cannibal Corpse, Bal-Sagoth and King Crimson. Those are my three best, says Henri.

When good bands are listed and the spectrum is rather vast, the lads haven’t limited to one band themselves either. We can find all stuff from 80’s thrash via proge to blacker metal: Gorewinter, Luokkasota, Circus Of Flesh, May Withers, Finntroll, Panösvyö, Kuha., etc. There’s a couple of the projects or bands where the members of Moonsorrow are involved in at current.

What about the influences then?

- Bathory is a great band. I must say that without Bathory Moonsorrow wouldn’t sound like this. Very unlikely we would’ve invented anything like this ourselves. But we invented the accordion.

- Henri got the idea of featuring the accordion on our album, although I disagreed with it at first. And Ahti disagreed.

Moonsorrow is one of those few(?) metal combos who end up featuring - on some tracks even as a rather dominating instrument - the accordion on their album. Tell the accordion story? How did a real accordion end up on your album?

- It was found in the studio. I practised to play it. It was like half an hour and I was ready.

At the moment the debut album of Moonsorrow is almost half a year late due to whatever reasons. Thus the members of the band hope it will be released before they get together for recording their next album. Despite of this fact the band has already appeared on four gigs. Has playing unfamiliar material been difficult considering the audience? How has the audience reacted to you and how have the gigs gone in general?

- Well, the first gig was at West Coast Holocaust IV at Turku and that was an obvious first gig. Pretty terrible. After that there was a gig in Tavastia in April and that went clearly better. The music has actually caught some people and some have even arrived to see us in particular.

- The third gig was an absolute catastrophe at Ragnarock II and we never leave for Turku again. We didn’t get the chance for a soundcheck although we were promised to, we got no money and even no food. On the top of it all we played at three o’clock at night when there were only six very drunken fellows in the audience.

- The Nosturi gig with a new intro made by Henri was a pretty nice one, although once again we couldn’t play the whole set - for the playing must end at two o’clock precisely. But one day we’re gonna play that Merciless-cover.

Which is conveniently ”Back To North”. Due to an unconditional request by the drummer, old demo material will be added into the set. ”Hvergelmir” from the first demo will propably be left out and what’s under rehearsing now is the epic from the second demo, ”Taistelu Pohjolasta”.

Last words of wisdom. If the wolf was Moonsorrow, which album would it be?

- Blood on ice!, sounds the answer with not a moment of hesitation.