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Interview: Moonsorrow
By Jeremy Vane-Tempest
Finnish metal band MOONSORROW are heading our way this November. We
sat down with lead guitarist Mitja Harvilahti to chat about Australia,
wombat wrestling and venereal diseases.
First things first, though. MOONSORROW is what Mitja describes as a
“pagan metal band with elements of black metal to traditional
Scandinavian music with prog rock elements here and there.” What he’s
trying to say is that it’s freaking awesome. Their most recent album,
entitled ‘Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa’, was released last year.
We just had one queston for Mitja: what the hell does that mean?
“It means ‘As Shadows We Roam The Land Of The Dead’, he laughed.
“It´s a very conceptual album, it has a post-apocalyptic story line of
group of people that are searching for life and future in the dead
world. It´s our first complete concept album and everything the music,
lyrics and the art work goes hand in hand with the story. I recommend
people to buy the vinyl copy of it to enjoy it in the best possible way,
with the big pictures of the gatefold.”
“CD really killed the visuality from music, and internet downloading
killed the rest, but vinyl is coming back! We have a huge 13 LP
Collector’s Edition Box coming out next year! That is, at the moment,
the biggest LP box ever in the history of metal. It will be gorgeous
with all the art and extra stuff. Very limited and very collectable
too.”
Sounds badass! What’s even more badass is that MOONSORROW are hitting
our shores in November for the first time in the band’s eighteen year
history. Mitja is understandably stoked. “We are super excited,” he
enthused. “It’s really exciting to get to tour on a new continent for
us, and Australia is such an exotic location to Finns that it´s even
better. None of us have visited Australia before, so it´s a great chance
for us to come for a tour! We have no idea how big we are over there,
so it will be interesting but also a little nerve wracking. We have no
clue if there will be full house every night or two guys and a dog! But
from what I know of Australian mentality, the crowd will be crazy and
interactive with the bands. That´s what we want to see, because that way
we can give the best show possible!”
Mitja continued, genuine excitement reverberating through his words.
“We wanted to come for a long time, people have writing to us and asking
us to come for years. That was nice but we couldn’t do anything. We
don´t book our shows. We can’t just say ‘Hey, let´s go to Australia!’ It
has to come from the local promoters and tour organisers. I guess there
was so much noise about us that Metropolis Touring took the task, and
here we are, coming to Australia finally! So big thanks goes to the
fans! And Metropolis, naturally.”
It’s not all sunshine and lollipops down here, though. The vast
majority of our native fauna is quite capable of killing the unwary
traveller. Still, they’ll have to hug a koala, right? “I happen to know
that many koalas are carrying chlamydia!” Mitja exclaimed. “I´m not
hugging those dirty, STD infested fur balls! I think I´m going for
wombat wrestling instead.”
“Seriously though, we’ll try anything,” he continued. “Learning to
surf, drinking beer, getting wasted, going to museums and seeing some
wildlife would be awesome! The Australian continent has such interesting
fauna. That, for me, is the biggest attraction. Unfortunately, our
schedule is so tight that I think hugging a koala would be the closest
thing we can see of the natural environment. Frankly, just to get a
glimpse of each city would be cool. If you people reading this have any
suggestions of what to do in each city, we are more than happy to get
some info at our Facebook page!”
Well, fans. You heard the man. Hit up their Facebook page and them what they should do in Australia!
Tour Dates
Wednesday 20th November – Hi Fi, Brisbane
Thursday 21st November – The Gov, Adelaide
Friday 22nd November – Manning Bar, Sydney
Saturday 23rd November – Hi Fi, Melbourne
Sunday 24th November – Rosemount, Perth
