Inferno / May 2023

 Link

 

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”Parinkymmenen minuutin eepokset lienevät osaltamme tehty” – haastattelussa Moonsorrow

Toukokuun lopun erikoiskeikat Helsingissä ja Jyväskylässä jäävät Moonsorrow'n viimeisiksi Suomen-klubiesiintymisiksi ennen seuraavan levyn julkaisua.

17.06.2023

Aki Nuopponen

Kuva: Mikael Karlbom

Luetuimmat nyt

1. Musiikkiteollisuus on polvillaan ja Spotify on maailman suurimpia rikollisia, sanoo Cradle of Filthin Dani Filth
2. Tuhti kattaus heviä tappohelteessä – raportti Tuhdimmat tahdit -festivaalilta
3. Rammstein-rumpali julkaisi pitkän kirjoituksen, jossa kommentoi yhtyeen ja laulaja Till Lindemannin ympärillä vellovaa kohua

Moonsorrow’n edellisen Jumalten aika -albumin julkaisusta tuli kuluneeksi tänä keväänä seitsemän vuotta. Uuden materiaalin parissa työskentelevä Henri Sorvali muistelee teosta yhä lämmöllä. 

 

– Pidän sitä parhaiten onnistuneena kokonaisuutenamme Verisäkeiden [2005] jälkeen, huolimatta siitä, miten vaikea sävellys- ja etenkin sovitusprosessi se oli. Myös koko bändille jäi albumin valmistumisen myötä palava tarve jatkaa eteenpäin sen viitoittamalla tiellä. Fiilikset ovat edelleen positiiviset ja eteenpäin suuntaavat. 

 

Moni kuulija varmasti ajattelee, että uusi Moonsorrow-albumi on ollut tekeillä koko ajan edellisen levyn julkaisun jälkeen. 

 

– On se ollutkin, mutta tekoprosessi on ollut pidempään tauolla tai edennyt äärimmäisen hitaasti henkilökohtaisista prioriteeteistani ja syistä johtuen, Sorvali kertoo. 

 

– Käytännössä uuteen levyyn keskittyminen alkoi varovaisesti vasta noin vuosi sitten. Lopputalvesta päätimme aktivoitua kollektiivisesti edistämään levyntekoa, ja olemme pyrkineet pitämään sovitussessioita enemmän päämäärää silmällä pitäen, ei ainoastaan riffien ja pätkien äänityksiin keskittyen. 

 

Moonsorrow’n musiikki on aina ollut yhdistelmä metallista raakuutta ja monikerroksista eeppisyyttä, eikä ole ihme, että monumentaalisten sävellysten rakentaminen ottaa aikansa – varsinkin, kun bändin omat laatuvaatimukset ovat korkealla. 

 

– Oman riman korkeus on suhteellinen käsite, mutta levyillemme ei ole koskaan päätynyt mitään, mitä olisimme pitäneet huonona tai puutteellisena ratkaisuna, Sorvali sanoo. 

 

– Isoin haaste on ollut, ja tulee olemaan, osien jäsentely ja sovitus. Sen lisäksi pyrimme löytämään jokaisella levyllämme erilaisen tulokulman asioihin. Sellaisen löytäminen saattaa joskus aiheuttaa aikamoista päänvaivaa. 

– Valmisteilla olevan levyn suhteen tulokulma on onneksi löytynyt. Tiedämme nyt, mistä musiikillisesta ja tuotannollisesta suunnasta haluamme lähestyä kokonaiskuvaa. Sen löytäminen ruokkii aina innostusta materiaalin tekemiseen, ja pyrimme aina lähtemään tilanteesta, jossa levy olisi ihan uusi projekti ja se ”eka demo”. 

Musiikkiin käytettävä teknologia ja laitteistot kehittyvät koko ajan. Kuinka hyvin pystyt toteuttamaan päässäsi soivan vision olemassa olevilla välineillä? 

– Siihen pisteeseen, johon Moonsorrow’n kanssa sitä tarvitsen, musiikkiteknologia on riittänyt minulle viimeisen parinkymmenen vuoden ajan. Luotan sävellys- ja demotusprosessissa hyvin yksinkertaisiin työkaluihin, koska haluan varmistaa nojaavani ensisijaisesti musiikillisiin enkä teknologisiin ratkaisuihin. Myös levynteossa jätämme samplekirjastot ja autotunet rauhaan ja pyrimme toteuttamaan homman niin luomuna ja livenä kuin mahdollista. 

– Pääasiallisessa työssäni, lähinnä orkesterimusiikin parissa operoidessani, tilanne on luonnollisesti täysin erilainen, mutta Moonsorrow’n kanssa koen pystyneeni toteuttamaan visioni sataprosenttisesti kakkosdemosta lähtien. En kuitenkaan pystyisi tekemään tätä koskaan yksin, vaan kaikilla muilla yhtyeen jäsenillä on mittaamattoman tärkeä rooli vision toteutumisessa. 

Tulevan albumin luonteesta Sorvalilla on tässä vaiheessa varsin vähän kerrottavaa. 

– Tuleva levy tulee todennäköisesti jatkamaan musiikillisesti siitä, mihin Jumalten aika paikoin jäi. Teemoista ja konseptista pysyn toistaiseksi vaiti ja jätän aiheesta keskustelemisen lyyriselle mestarillemme, kun sen aika koittaa. 

– Kappaleiden kestot ovat vielä mysteeri itsellemmekin, mutta uskoisin, että parinkymmenen minuutin eepokset lienevät osaltamme tehty ja mitat tulevat pysyttelemään kymmenen minuutin molemmin puolin. Mitään neljän minuutin ralleja tältä bändiltä tuskin koskaan tulee! 

Julkaistu Infernossa 5/2023.

Rauta / May 2018

Necromancer's Crypt / September 2017 (Lunar Womb)

SOURCE


Hi Henri,
This interview is a retrospective discussion with one of the pioneers of the DS genre or Hernri Sovali (instrumentalist, sound engineer, composer producer and a member of Moonsorrow and Finntroll, he has been working in the game industry as musician since 2004.
I must say that I run into your music exploring the network with the intent of expanding my DS music culture. The Lunar Wombs are one of the groups that not only hit me but also gave me the feeling of the group that puts a solid stylistic brick in the genre.

Thank you! When we (as Lunar Womb was first a collaboration between three people) started the project in 1994 we were mostly inspired by bands such as Tangerine Dream and Burzum. When the other people left the project after the first demo I wanted to bring more of my other influences to the project, namely the folk- and middle- age- elements combined with the ritualistic and meditative approach of the first demo.

There weren´t many bands of the genre at the time in the “Dungeon Synth”- scene albeit from Mortiis and the sporadic Norwegian offshoots (Wongraven, Neptune Towers, etc) , but I was heavily into projects such as Endvra, Puissance, Elend and Pazuzu which were a huge source of inspiration to me among classical, medieval and folk music in general. I guess that all molded Lunar Womb´s sound what it was to become before going much more folky and melodic in the last demo.

Ok then,
the Lunar Womb project was born in 1995 but only in 2015 it has been resurrected and remastered, in your bandcamp there is written that resembling it gave you the impression that it was dated , but I had the impression  that did not but that is only good music ...

It took me longer than I expected to finish “The Sleeping Green” and when I finally had got the last mixes ready in 2001 or so, I already felt the project sounding a bit too “outdated”, and our cassette label which was supposed to release it was already laid to rest a couple of years before. I was also quite busy with both Moonsorrow and Finntroll and decided to leave the album unreleased “until I think otherwise”.

Fast- forwarding to 2015, I accidentally stumbled across the original recordings again and thought that underneath the bad sound is still beating a strong vision which should be dug out. And that I should give the album it´s last rites, remaster it for good and let it rest eternally. After all, I had put very much effort and soul to it and I felt it still contained the same spirit that was burning (and still is) inside me years ago.
As we had now things like Bandcamp, Youtube and many others and I knew I wasn´t going to need any publisher anymore, I spent several full days decluttering the sound, restoring lost dynamics and fixing horrible engineering mistakes I had foolishly done fifteen years ago until I knew I couldn´t make it any better.

What has convinced you to remasterize "The Sleeping Green" and above all you can talk about your great musical passion that you have ? Can be considered a great relief even at a psychological level?

  <a href="http://worldoftrollhorn.bandcamp.com/album/the-sleeping-green">The Sleeping Green by Lunar Womb</a>


First of all I thought the album should be finally released to the public due to the abovementioned things in the previous answer, but as I had greatly improved in my technical skills during the years I thought I could also take it as a “technical challenge”. My passion for music that awakens feelings and paints pictures unseen is very deep, and as I had conjured everything from my mind back then I also hoped to evoke such visions within the listener´s mind.
I wanted the music to take me somewhere I felt I belonged, and I wanted to show people where that place was. In that sense, it was also a relief to finally show the possible listeners the map there. If the listener finds the same imageries, landscapes and long lost ages that I did, I feel I have succeeded on my humble task.

Does your job at Rovio Entertainment (if you still work with that company) have a lot of influence on your musician's creativity or is it the reverse?

It´s a double- edged sword, really. I have been working as a composer in the games industry since 2004 but I have always had some spare time to waste at work than after joining the Angry Birds, which is much more demanding job. I have worked there since 2013, and while I have become much more professional composer and music producer during the time, it also has sometimes negatively effected my workflow for what it comes to more “spiritual” compositional outbursts on my spare time due to exhaustion. (which also could be explained that during this time I have also started a small freelance mixing service and got two more kids, hah!) 
While doing music at Rovio, I find it very important to still make music which contains something else than just notes in certain order, which is sometimes consuming, as we´re speaking of creative work being done on constant schedules. However, I feel like working in such professional atmosphere feeds my creativity at the same time and pushes me to try different new things and techniques which I wouldn´t even dream of 4-5 years ago. And while I do that, I try to make sure there´s never a moment I couldn´t put a lot of my own touch to everything- for example, on the last soundtrack I made, I included influences from Burzum and Danzig to the package, haha!

Does music in the video game world have something special that can not be transmitted in the same way in DS ?

Absolutely not, if you ask me. There´s a lot video game music hugely resemblant to DS genre, and in fact I´ve been saying for years that some day I´ll write a lenghty essay on the topic pointing out parallels between the two musical forms, haha! To tear it down a bit, both genres are heavily drawing from the ambient genre, are basically existing to evoke feelings and tend to be repetitive and hypnotic on their roots- not so far away from early electronic and ambient music. And New Age too, if you prefer, which is just basically a (poor) spiritual attempt on both.

On the other hand, if we´re taking game music´s most known examples- be it either hanszimmeresque corny movie soundtrack style (CoD, I´m looking at you) or the classic 8/16- bit stuff, I can understand why comparisons to the feelings the DS genre may evoke within the listeners which game music cannot are rather justified. There is a lot of game music which can transmit the same sort of emotions a DS album can at it´s best, and I´d strongly suggest you to check out soundtracks from such classic games as “Myst”, “Diablo II”, “The Dig” and “Fallout II” to get a glimpse of game music in more DS/ dark ambient style, and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons which combines the same elements Lunar Womb´s “Sleeping Green” is full of- only ten times better!

To be honest, I think it´s a shame that the mainstream game music in the 2010´s doesn´t necessarily bring forth such a strong atmosphere it used to do 10-15 years ago due to hollywoodizing/ “playing it safe”- reasons, but if you wander to the more indie side of things, there´s a lot of good things happening on the musical side which you could enjoy. Then again, isn´t this the case with everything, heh?

I do not really like video games and/or various fantasy stories etc. But...
Do you believe that the video games audience has a different, (I would say more superficial, approach) to the music ? or there are sensitive ears between game players that listen with  passion the music that accompanies the game itself?

I pity the fool who cannot surrender to the immersive grasp of fantasy world- after all, that´s what the whole DS genre is all about! ;)  What our societies have forgotten during the constant growth in both technology and efficiency is the art of storytelling and spirituality. Our roots are torn apart and replaced with fast food, homogenic cultures, reality TV and Cosmopolitan. Fantasy literature, movies and games are all part of the same revival as is the DS- genre: not only pure entertainment per se, but a clear indicator that the western society- no matter how well it works otherwise- has forgotten it´s own roots.

For some, it starts from Game of Thrones and for some the glimpse is revealed by a role- playing game while someone wants to understand Deathspell Omega´s lyrics better. But this all is a clear indicator that our world is lacking the depth it once had, and every day more and more people are starting to realize this. Our job as musicians is to take part of that call and strengthen the signal when it´s needed.

When you think about the music used in these forms of art, I believe it´s very much dependant on the game genre, though. It´s really hard to believe someone fully embracing any spirituality or superficiality in Mick Gordon´s (par excellent, mind you) Doom 2016 soundtrack, but am most certain that the more (medieval) fantasy- based the game is, the more it draws in certain types of people who are also much more sensitive to the music than, say, people who are more into Counter- Strike.
 

What do you think about the current development of the DS scene?
Is there any group you like in a particular way?

My knowledge of this lately- resurrected scene is rather minimal at the moment, though I am extremely pleased on the revival of these soundscapes. It seems that the Americans are mostly to be thanked for this, as I haven´t really been exposed on any European people doing this particular style lately...and with lately I mean the last 15 years, haha! For what it comes to any particular groups, Druadan Forest (though having been around since the 90´s), has made an awesome new DS- album which I had the opportunity to master at my studio just recently. It should be out on Werewolf Records soon, and I highly recommend to check it out when it´s released!

The biggest challenge in the whole DS- genre revival in my opinion comes from the fact that as these soundscapes were originally a product of the 90´s, it´s very hard to get the same hardware and sound over 20 years later. Nowadays you can get almost any instrument sampled digitally, but the more common late 80’s/ early 90’s hardware synths from Roland, Korg and Ensoniq are completely deglected as there is no demand for their cheap digital sounds which were popular back then. They aren´t too good to be “retro” but not too good to be useful either for most of the people, thus they are not available in various sample formats for now. But maybe times change in the future?

The computer and sample- based production of the 2010´s has surely brought us a lot of opportunities to use same sort of sounds digitally, but if they were used the exact same way that they were done in the 90´s, the sound would also be dull, outdated and quite poor. It is certainly pure art to balance the old and the new together in a way that is still respectful to the genre, yet with the worst technical flaws defeated.
And we also need to consider the fact that these original soundscapes weren´t necessarily the best of the best at the time- usually they were cheap digital synths with very synthetic- sounding imitations of real instruments and I´m certain the artists would had used more realistic- sounding and generally better- quality sounds if they had the opportunity to do it. Had the scene evolved and continued, who knows how the original concept of e.g. Mortiis would had sounded with today´s technology!


If the Lunar Womb project was continued as you think it would have evolved?

I believe it would had become something very Wardruna- like, yet not as warlike and ritualistic. Immersive soundscapes combined with traditional instruments, samples of nature and a ton of choirs. But definitely more into the dreamy and spiritual side of the bone, though. Lunar Womb was (is?) always about a lonely and long journey instead of a horde of barbarians chanting war hymns....Not that there´s anything wrong with that either, hah!

Are you satisfied with the re-issue of Lunar Womb  “Planets / The Astral Grief” by the Hollow Myths label?

I wasn´t planning to release the re- issue at all and it took quite a many persuading emails from them to finally get my acceptance on the matter. I was willing to do it in the end because I heard there were so many people asking for it in CD form and I wanted to give them the chance to get the music on CD instead of a random Youtube- link which they didn´t want. We have agreed that the initial amount will be 100 pieces and no more shall be printed ever again.

Are you also into techno music?

Among many other music styles- absolutely yes, and if counting ambient out of the context, my particular favourite subgenre is Goa Trance (and some Psytrance). It has the same element in common than in many other music genres I enjoy, which is meditative and hypnotic, slowly evolving minimalism. On top of that it´s also very atmospheric for what it comes to the production and has usually very widely utilized stereo image which drowns you to the soundscapes, resembling a lot of genres from ambient to even black metal.


The artwork from Rudolf Koivuof  of“The Sleeping Green ” is great … Are there other artists and illustrators whom you particularly like their work?

This couldn´t be an interview about 90´s Dungeon Synth without mentioning Theodor Kittelsen and John Bauer, haha! Especially Bauer´s work on Trolls has been a huge influence for me throughout the times. But for Finnish painters more than just Rudolf Koivu, I need definitely to mention Akseli Gallen- Kallela and Hugo Simberg as well. Especially Gallen- Kallela´s works have been heavily utilized in the Finnish metal scene since the 90´s in various demos, magazines and flyers. For what it comes to (painted) art in general, I have obviously always tended to be more drawn into the national- romantic era and find many particularly inspiring pieces from there despite of the identity of the artist.

Recently some musicians are rediscovering the sounds of the old synths of the 90s, of course technologies allow all this, according to you in this genre of music, how important is the atmosphere and the sound, compared to the musical ideas that are actually written?


As mentioned earlier, the technological possibilities of recreating the exact sound of a particular era has been around for some time already, and it may be a tempting idea for a young composer to pick up a sound and start mimicking. But with great power comes indeed a great responsibility, and without first understanding the form of art we are trying to create it is impossible to create nothing a but a bland shadow of it.

When you are creating something completely new or perhaps combining two things together (isn´t the early DS basically just “medieval ambient”, if you think about it?) for the first time, there are basically no rules. But if you´re trying to stay true to an original musical artform, be it anything from classical music to death metal, you need to first have an understanding of the basic characteristics of the genre. A skilled musician can arrange and produce any song into another style with stunning (and sometimes very amusing) results, but without first understanding what he is doing it´s impossible to convince anyone, leaving but a sour taste in mouth afterwards.

Be it any musical genre, both musical and production values are very important, and usually the more “strictly defined” the genre´s characteristical sound is, the more pinned down those values are.

 

Hollywood Metal / May 2016 (Lunar Womb)

SOURCE

Unearthed Arcana: Henri Sorvali and Forgotten Dungeon Synth

Kaptain Carbon

There are a billion things I could have asked Henri Sorvali. His work in Moonsorrow and Fintroll is usually a start but so is his work in video game composition or his enthusiasm for gaming. Additionally, I could have asked him about his role in the H&M clothing troll which overtook metal media a few years back. There are a billion things I want to ask Mr. Sorvali but since we has so few moments together, I might as well concetrate mostly on his dungeon synth project. I mean, would you expect anything less from me?
As reported in the last Dungeon Synth Digest, Lunar Womb was a dark ambient / medieval project created by Henri Sorvali and a few associates in the late 90’s. The project was never completed and sat on hard drives collecting digital dust. However, this year it was completed and released to a new generation which found an appreciation for the sound. The Sleeping Green not only represents a seminal project finally completed, but also an unsuspecting artifact of dungeon synth history in which the creator was surprised to learn that many people not only knew about, but were eager to celebrate. Henri was kind enough to make his way to our small hamlet and over pipes and cups of ale we were able to discuss music from ages past and dungeons of today.

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You no longer play live with Moonsorrow. Was that a decision made because of your commitment to other projects?

Not just because of that. My personal life and other music- related timesinks are keeping me extremely busy, but as I have written in my blog in August 2015, the decision was not only due to commitments to other projects but mostly because of my mental health. I have been suffering from depression since the late 90´s and touring makes it uncontrollable in a way that I have had to step out from those activities. If you´re interested to read more about the matter and my decisions leading to the situation, surf into here.

I initially reached out to you regarding Lunar Womb which was an electronic/ambient/synth project began in 1995. Who was involved with this project?

It all started with me, my cousin Ville and our mutual friend Kharadrai back in 1994, all of us being fans of ambient and electronic music. After releasing our (horrible) first cassette demo, “Planets”, we decided to split up, everyone concentrating on their own styles as we were all having a different ideas how to evolve. While Ville never continued his visions, Kharadrai made some very succesful and oppressing- sounding industrial/ ambient demos in the late 90´s and I continued with Lunar Womb alone until 1999. The second demo I made alone in 1997 wasn’t particularly very good due to a complete lack of equipment, but with Sleeping Green I had finally got a proper synth with proper sounds to materialize my visions the way I wanted to.

Your material from this project was made in the late 90’s but got archived until last year. What was your reaction when unearthing this project?

Going through my backups in early 2015, I stumbled upon the tracks, wondering if they still sound as outdated as I remembered. For my surprise, I realized that with a proper re- mastering these could actually be interesting to listen to….at least for myself, so I decided to give it a chance. I still find the vocals quite horrible and for what it comes to the production it´s definitely not matching the standards of today, but underneath the clumsiness there´s clearly an idea about what I was trying to achieve. If nothing else, I consider it as an important part of my musical history combined with my ideologies. I wasn´t planning to publish those, but when discussing about the tracks with comrade Velkaarn from Asmodian Coven- website, he insisted me to do so, so here we are over 15 years later, haha!

The sounds and melodies on The Sleeping Green are a combination of both work in the late 90’s but also finished and polished more recently. Was it easier to work on Lunar Womb with the recent technology as oppose to the late 90’s?

To correct the assumptions a bit, nothing has been re- recorded or musically modified from the original tracks. Everything you hear is recorded and mixed in 1999! The only thing done again was the mastering, which is basically the “last polishing” of the sound. It took me several weeks and countless hours to restore the music into a state it was possible to master again, and I doubt it could had never been done 15 years ago in a way it was done now- undoing a lot of earlier mistakes in the sound processing (e.g. stereo image overwidened into a phase cancellation, artificially too boosted hi and low frequencies) and trying to get some of the dynamics back with careful automation hell.

Could you give us some insight into the world of dark synth music made by metal musicians in the late 90’s? Were you aware of things like Burzum, Depressive Silence, Mortiis, and what seems like a bevy of musicians making dark synthscapes?

I first stumbled into Burzum´s synth pieces in 1994 but the real breakthrough for myself was Mortiis´ “Keiser av den Dimensjon Ukjent” a year later. I used to (and still do) listen to Cold Meat Industry- released albums as well, ranging from Aghast to Mortho(u)nd to Arcana and back and a lot of “real” ambient artists such as Steve Roach and Brian Eno, but the more medieval and national-romantic fantasy- themed style was definitely my cup of tea and that seemed to be also the case for many other metal musicians.
At some point in ´96/97 the “ambient side project”- thing got really popular, as every second black metal musician was announcing his new upcoming Casio project to be the most dark/ atmospheric/ conanthebarbarian around and there were countless of bad releases to try to avoid. Many of them were quickly forgotten, but some became gems that are still standing against time in their own uniqueness and feeling, of which a great example is the superb “Fjelltronen” of Wongraven, a.k.a Satyr. I find many parallels between ambient/ synth music and 2nd wave of black metal, both relying often on hypnotic soundscapes and otherworldy atmospheric layers of sonic mass- and many bands have already included those similar synth elements to their albums in a form of intros and interludes since the dawn of that 2nd wave of black metal. And as the metal audience is generally more keen into fantasy pop culture and even classical national- romantic themes than e.g. dubstep or reggae audience, it´s easy to see why the seemingly very different- sounding music has found a place in their hearts as well.

What was your reaction when you learned about the recent development in dungeon synth and a whole new generation of people following the paths made by solo musicians in the 90s? Did you ever think it would be a thing in 2016?

You know that warm, fuzzy feeling when you thought you had lost something dear, finding it again years later? That! But it´s not only nostalgia- tinted glasses, as I really love that sound. What really made me glad was that while the technical limitations are not hindering the productions like they used to do, the music I encountered was still made with a great respect to the genre´s original sound combined with the more modern possibilities. And for many things I could had predicted from the metal (and related) scene, I have to admit that the return of DUNGEON SYNTH wasn´t on that list, haha!

Have you had any recent favorite dungeon synth albums or artists?

As the whole re- movement of the genre was flying completely under the radar for me, I only have catched a small part of the new artists as we speak. From your blog, Faery Ring was really catching my attention, though!

Aside from Moonsorrow and Finntroll as well as being a music producer for Rovio Entertainment, you have recently opened up a mixing / Mastering operation called Trollhouse Audio. Who is the audience for this service?

More extreme black and death metal bands and projects who are interested on getting a proper, yet nasty and organic sound for their products- be it mixing, mastering or even both! The more evil the source material, the better, heh! I opened the service “unofficially” in April 2016 and have recently worked with a couple of Finnish black metal projects, and right now I´m mixing a full- length album of currently unannounced band to be released later this year.
I´m also very experienced on mixing on synth/ ambient/ neoclassical music, so if anyone reading this becomes interested, don´t hesitate to catch me on Twitter @trollhornmusic– I´m not that expensive, as it´s more of a very dear side- project for me among everything else, haha!

Do you have anymore freetime left? Do you like to pass that little bit you have with games or books? If so what has been keeping your interest lately?

Being a father of three kids, the concept of “free time” is rather unknown term for me, haha! While I´m not taking care of the more mundane things such as de- infecting a moldy woodshed or picking up small people from kindergarten after work, I still have some time for myself every now and then. Most of that I either spend in my studio room, playing computer games, writing and drawing while listening to music, building and modding computers and reading either about music production, philosophy/ psychology or fantasy literature. I do spend a lot of time in the nature in contrary to all the tech surrounding me, but I always take my family with me.
Just like every gamer who is a parent, I have a ton of unplayed or unfinished games in my shelf and on my Steam and GoG- accounts. Lately I´ve been playing..uh, a certain “older” version of World of Warcraft, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Day of the Tentacle remaster, Psychonauts and Hearthstone. I tend also to play with my kids as much as possible, and we just finished Curse of Monkey Island with my son, who thought it was the best game ever, heh!

Let us say I am starting a new longterm campaign for a tabletop RPG. Could be D&D, Pathfinder, or any other system and you are playing in my game. What type of character are you making. What should I expect during our games? Are you our fighter or are you casting spells in the back?

I´ve always been drawn more into the caster types. Basic swordfighting is so boring that I at least need to be a thief then, haha! For (A)D&D, I´d probably settle for a chaotic neutral Illusionist. Being a bit unstable, I´d love to do the unpredictable and amuse myself in expense of practicality. Not to mention the certain “unrelialibity” as a party member as well- a kind of D&D- version of good old Loke, if you prefer mythology, haha! Last time we played D&D, we used pre- defined sheets and I ended up getting a lawful good human mage. Yuck! It was so boring to be in character I started drinking heavily IRL and demanded my character to be an alcoholic so I could tweak my own gameplay even a bit more interesting.

I ask this to every dungeon synth creator but seeing how Lunar Womb just came out with a record, it would be natural for that entity to tour. What are your thoughts on a festival with this type of music. Could you see an interest in having a festival of all ambient synths?

There are a lot of festivals already dedicated to music which isn´t necessarily loud and overhyped, and I could easily see e.g. a stage or a tent dedicated to this type of music only in Wave Gothic Treffen or M´era Luna Festival. Ambient music festivals are existing, but for a festival solely dedicated to this subgenre, it would be quite hard to find bigger names every year to draw interest, as the scene is so small.
But who knows? Maybe some day there will be Dark Dungeons Open Air in a nice southern German field with live action roleplaying and mazes built from inflatable stone walls to solve and go through? Damn, the more I think it, someone has to do this!!!!

Vice / March 2015 (Strong Scene Productions)

SOURCE

We Spoke to the Guy Who Tricked the World Into Thinking That H&M Were Selling Neo-Nazi Metal T-Shirts

Henri Sorvali helped create an ingenious fake campaign poking fun at how metal subcultures are mass marketed.

So, the last 24 hours have been fucking weird. When I woke up this morning, it looked as though everyone's favorite source of cheap belts, H&M, had been sussed out for creating online profiles for a load of fake metal bands, peppered with the occasional bit of neo-nazi imagary, all in the interest of flogging some t-shirts.

In a news story that originally appeared on Metal Injection, and has since been reported by Fact, Complex and innumerable other sites, H&M had come under fire for potentially unleashing "one of the more ill-advised marketing campaigns in recent history."

They reported that H&M are currently selling a series of t-shirts with the logos of what appeared to be obscure metal bands on. However when you looked up the bands, they could all be traced back to a collective called Strong Scene Productions. If you visit their Facebook page, you do indeed see the band names from the shirts (MORTUS, MOTMROS, LANY, MYSTIC TRIANGLE et al) littered everywhere, alongside gig posters ($250-300 for an underground one day festival), biographies ("The purpose of Mortus is to serve the almighty Sathanas and spread the black semen of the holy goat onto all lands") and artwork that features a goth'd up version of the models featured above. But all of this was created en masse within the last week.

Metal Injection reported that some of these invented bands had ties with the National Socalist Black Metal scene—that is, to put it bluntly, raving neo-nazis. So, if this was all a marketing ploy by H&M, then somebody really, really fucked it. However, given that this time last year, H&M were forced to withdraw a line of vests featuring the Star of David with a skull in the middle following accusations of anti-semitism, the idea that someone from marketing sacked off the research aspect of their job once again didn't seem all that unlikely. Even so, something about it all didn't quite add up.
In now turns out, H&M had absolutely nothing to do with the making of these bands whatsoever. It was all a giant parody by those behind Strong Scene Productions who are, essentially, genuine metal fans who took one look at H&M's most recent “metal-inspired” items of clothing—complete with fake bands and patches that work from a brief of “generic heavy metal imagery”—and thought, "I'm done with high street chains badly commodifying my music." They decided to play a deep and brilliant joke on H&M, by actually creating the "bands," making them really right wing and then spreading them across the internet for the world to join the dots.

Henri Sorvali of Finnish metal band Moonsorrow/Finntroll is one of the people behind the idea. So, I got in touch to chat with him about the marvellous media shitstorm he helped create for one of the world's biggest retail outlets.

(Some very legit artwork for a totally real band, taken from Strong Scene Productions' Facebook page)

Noisey: OK real talk, Henri—do any of the bands on Strong Scene Productions actually exist?
Henri: No. Every single band was created on the basis of the patches in the H&M spring collection clothes.

Is this a backlash against the commodification of metal by mainstream retailers?
Partially, yes. But we also wanted to point out the fact that you cannot commercialize a subculture without actually knowing all the different aspects of it. Knowledge on your product is essential in marketing, and Strong Scene supports self-awareness and education for everyone on the matter. And no, I also haven't been hired for a job by H&M either, which the wildest rumors claimed!

This all seems like a lot of effort just to troll H&M. So the real question is, why bother?
The purpose of the group (consisting of literally tens of people from different areas of music and media around Scandinavia) was to create discussion on the fact that metal culture is more than just "cool" looking logos on fashionable clothes, and has many more aesthetic and ideological aspects in different subgenres than what some corporations are trying to express. The metal scene is varied, controversial and a sort of a wolf you can't chain into a leash and expect it to behave on your terms like a dog. Strong Scene as a collective has absolutely no political nor ideological intentions, and is only bringing the conversation to the level it should be discussed at. Think of us as the one-time "Yes Men" of metal music.

You're in a metal band yourself—Finntroll. Any connection between the subject matter on the albums (battling trolls etc) and the online trolling we see today?
While this would be a rather clever place to actually drum for Finntroll´s media publicity, this has nothing to do with that. You call this trolling, we call it cultural jamming. And Finntroll just kicks out the jams in other things!

Thanks Henri!

Metal Crypt / October 2015

SOURCE

Interview date:  October 10th, 2015.

Interview with Mitja Harvilahti, Marko Tarvonen and Henri Sorvali

Interview conducted by Luxi Lahtinen

Date online: October 24, 2015

Interview, studio pictures and other crap by Luxi Lahtinen

Finnish Pagan Metallers Moonsorrow earned a reputation as a cornerstone of the Folk/Viking/Heathen/you-name-it genre in recent years. Every album that they have put out has been an event. The band's latest work, Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa, a concept album about life on earth after a nuclear war was released on Spinefarm Records at the end February 2011 and marked the end of an era for Moonsorrow. They have been composing material for their forthcoming as-yet-untitled seventh studio album ever since and it has been a painful process for the band due to a number of different reasons.

The Metal Crypt had the privilege to be one of the first media publications to get an advance taste of what is to come from the Moonsorrow camp. Because the album is still far from finished only snippets were heard at Sonic Pump Studios in Helsinki, Finland, but it's safe to expect no less than a mind-blowing and epic journey from these Finnish Pagan Metallers. The album features five songs with one around seven minutes in length and the remaining four each surpassing the 10-minute mark. As usual, magnificently catchy, made-for-humming choruses and melody lines and clever compositions that ooze both testosterone-filled power and beauty, are present on this forthcoming opus. Frankly, it doesn't sound like it could get more epic and adventurous than this! In a nutshell, another earth-shattering masterpiece is on its way, believe me.

Let's have Mitja, Marko and Henri share their thoughts and feelings about their latest creation. Horns and swords up - and read on...

Luxi: Let's get straight to the main course. Can you tell us something about this new album, how this new material sounds to your ears and how it differs from everything you've done in the past?

Mitja: For starters, I guess it should be mentioned this album has been two long years in the works. At some point during the songwriting process we basically threw most of our old ideas out of the window and started with a clean slate because we weren't satisfied with the stuff that we had come up with. After that, when we knew the direction we wanted to take Moonsorrow in it took some time to find the right balance with the new stuff and how we wanted this new album to sound. With this record, the composing process wasn't finished until the final chalk line but we are very satisfied with what we have done. 

Marko: The very last song that we finished for this record was completed just two days before we started recording drums. I didn't have as much time to rehearse the song as I originally hoped for. Most of the songs took final shape during the last week before we entered the studio and started the recording process.

Luxi: When you were composing songs for this forthcoming album did you feel that you needed to shed your skin and not repeat any of your other albums?

Marko: Yes, in fact it's always been that way for us when we start working with a new Moonsorrow album. There's no sense in repeating any of our old stuff really and it's important to progress and find new ways to express yourself musically, you know. I mean, it would be very easy to make a near copy of your most successful albums - like making Kivenkantaja II – because that way you would surely keep your fans satisfied and your record label would undoubtedly like it as well. But it neither serves anyone nor feels right because the bottom line is you always want to challenge yourself as a musician and come up with something different every time. There's no point in repeating your past stuff over and over again. Then again, there's always something that you could have done better on earlier releases but that's part of the musical evolution as you become a better player and musician. You start finding new ways to avoid the "mistakes" that you made on past releases.

Anyway, people should keep in mind that Moonsorrow isn't the same band that it was let's say 10 years ago other than we still have the same guys in the line-up. The stuff we did 10 years ago is radically different compared to the stuff we do these days, I would say.

Luxi: That's all true, yes. Then again, if you change too radically, as some bands have done over the years, die-hard fans may raise their middle finger and eventually stop listening to your stuff, if you know what I am trying to say here...

Marko: Yeah. The basic elements of the "Moonsorrow sound", in which epic melodies meet aggressiveness, have always been there on each album and they won't go anywhere, that's for certain. With this forthcoming album, I believe the main emphasis is more on those aggressive elements. In the very same breath I must also add that this new album will probably contain some the most folk-orientated elements that we have ever done for a Moonsorrow release, though they won't dominate the songs. Our new album is arguably a Metal album and not a Folk album, that's for certain. In my opinion we have also reached out to the extreme end on this new Moonsorrow album.

Mitja: I have to agree. Both sides are well represented on this new Moonsorrow record, both the folk side as well as the more extreme side. I think this album will have more Folk-orientated stuff than any of our previous albums. Perhaps our third album, Kivenkantaja, comes closest to this new album in terms of folk-orientated parts are concerned. I think finding the right musical balance on this record was really hard because some of us wanted to incorporate more extreme Black Metal elements into the songs but our new songs aren't extreme Black Metal in the true sense, you know. We struggled to get this album to sound like us which we eventually did, in my opinion. For example, just two days before we were supposed to enter the studio and start recording, Henri (Sorvali) wanted to turn a recently finished song totally upside down and basically strip all the folk influences down. We had a huge argument about this inside the band, I can tell you. The rest of us were totally against modifying the song because all of us felt like it's just perfect with some truly excellent elements in it. In fact, I believe it will become the most meaningful number off this new record for our fans. This particular song wasn't so Black Metal orientated in the first place so there's no point to make it sound like that although this burning argument took place in our camp because of the musical direction. This has been one of the reasons the making of this new album has taken such a long time. Sometimes it's easier to accept the fact that a song tends to take a certain format and everyone should be happy with it and not try to fix something that isn't broken, you know. However, I am confident enough to say that we have managed to pull together a very satisfying album once again.

Marko: Yeah, I agree but after many not-so-beautiful twists and turns I would add.

Luxi: Do you think that this new album is the most diverse album compared to your previous works where you have gone from one extreme to another?

Mitja: Hmm, in my opinion we still had the biggest musical contrast on our Verisäkeet album, but this new album comes pretty close to it when it comes to musical diversity. This forthcoming album will have a lot of blast-beat stuff, sheer rawness and such but we have a good dose of symphonic elements too, so the album will be a very diverse, which is a great thing.

Luxi: How did you share the work load with this album? Who did what and how much?

Marko. Henri is the primary motor when is comes to songwriting for Moonsorrow. It's always been that way and will always will be. Everyone in the band is of course allowed to contribute to the songwriting process with either musical or lyrical ideas but Henri is still the main filter that either approves or rejects stuff. He has the final word about everything when talking about Moonsorrow's songs. However, this does not mean that he is king of the hill with all the power over our stuff. Each of us is able to discuss our own ideas on a constructive level even if sometimes we cannot completely avoid twisting some arms. Little arguments between the band members are constructive to the songwriting process because they have a tendency to open our eyes as to where we are with our material and whether the musical direction is right and so forth. The thing for us has been that sometimes we have been totally lost with our direction and when we have tried to force ourselves back into a certain mold it has never sounded good. Eventually this has put our backs against the wall and at times has deepened our fights inside the band regarding what we should do and what we shouldn't. Sometimes if you are not getting anywhere with your stuff it is easier to call it a day and start all over the next. If you desperately try to get things done you may lose your musical vision and the result ends up sounding like crap. Plus, arguing with everyone in the band does not help that situation. Eventually you may start arguing about things that are not even related to making music. This holds some water when it comes to the writing process for this new Moonsorrow opus. In all honesty this new Moonsorrow album hasn't been an easy project for us. It's absolutely been our toughest and sweatiest album to make. Of course we are happy about the fact that when we entered the studio to record this opus we had all the material ready so the recording process itself has been quite smooth.

Mitja: Yeah. Actually a big difference between the making of our previous album, Varjoina... and this one is that Henri was able to compose the songs for that previous record at his old workplace. He did almost the whole album from start to finish alone. For the rest of us it was tough to get there and give our input. With this new album it's been totally different as all of us have had a chance to arrange the songs at our own home studios. We have made quite a few visits to his home during the past few months and it's been good because Henri has been craving input from the rest of us. This album definitely feels more like a collective work than Varjoina...

Marko: Exactly, or our V: Hävitetty album, which was far from a whole band effort, I think.

Luxi: Will this new album be a concept album, at least partly, in which the songs have something in common to each other lyrically? 

Marko: No, it's not the kind of a concept album people think of although there's a faint connection between the songs lyrically which you may want to discuss with Ville (Sorvali). But in the sense of a concept album, where each song tells a story from one to another, it is not that. I prefer saying that each song has a story of its own.

Mitja: In fact, this was also one of the most challenging issues for us, when we decided not to put out a concept album this time around. We really didn't want to write songs the same way as we used to. Adding bits and pieces into a bigger whole that way prevented us from seeing the forest for the trees, if I can put it that way. We wanted to clarify our song structures on this new album because adding more and more parts into one song does not make much sense at all. We put more emphasis on the song arrangements so that the songs would stand out better than ever before. To be honest we haven't worked that way in 10 years or so. Finding the kind of right mode was also quite a challenge for the band.

Marko: It was very refreshing for us to work that way, which was totally different from how we used to work. Even though it's been a tough journey to get all of these songs put together for this album it's been somewhat easy for us to work in the studio environment with this material because we already knew how the album was going sound, which put us in high spirits. Getting to the recording stage has felt very good for the whole band, I think. I remember thinking two months back that this project was doomed. We were stuck in a miserable hole with no way out. Then a miracle happened within the last month or so and before we were about to enter the studio things started really flowing for us regarding our visions about the material (the starts in the night sky were in a favorable position for us, bla-bla-blaah, haha!!). It's really hard to put a finger on it and say what actually happened but things really started locking into place. Something definitely magical happened because all of a sudden things got drastically easier for us with regard to this new material.

Mitja: I have to agree. Somehow we found this nice flow and balance for our new stuff. Each of us was very secure about getting the right vibe and needed nuances incorporated into this record. I have a good example. Yesterday Jonne Järvelä (vocalist of Korpiklaani) visited the studio and did his special Shaman-type of vocals for one of our songs. He nailed it perfectly because when Henri heard what he did he was truly touched. We all agree that Jonne was the right man to sing this part. None of us would have sung that particular part as perfectly as Jonne did so we were really fortunate to have him sing it.

Luxi: Moonsorrow really isn't the kind of band that releases a new album every year. I was wondering if while in the middle of the songwriting process one or more of you have started flagging heavily for the kind of either musical, lyrical or conceptual ideas that would cause there to be a gap of 3-4 years (or more) between albums?

Marko: I would not say that has ever happened to us. It's basically been about personal matters as to why fans cannot get a new album from us every year. Plus, people should keep in mind that we don't make our living from this and we personally don't feel the need to keep Moonsorrow in that type of a strict release routine.

Mitja: That would be almost impossible for us...

Marko: Yeah, exactly. Why should we release a new album every second year or so? I just cannot see any point in it. We would rather take our time and work carefully and determinedly with it until we are 200% satisfied. Like with this album, we had almost an album's worth of material done but we weren't quite satisfied with it so we decided to clean our table and start all over again for better results.

Henri: I also have to admit working with the material for this new opus hasn't really offered any sweet honey. As Marko said, we did have a whole bunch of material composed for this record but eventually decided to throw it in the trash can. This has been a really difficult process for me to get the songs done for this album due to a couple of different reasons. To begin with, as Mitja and/or Marko has told you already, I used to compose stuff for Moonsorrow at my old workplace. I simply haven't had much time for anything due to long days at my current job plus my family has eaten up a good share out of my spare time as well. Also, my band mates have been coming and going to my place actively during the entire songwriting process so nothing has been easy for us with this album. Hopefully the fans can appreciate our efforts with this record when they get a chance to hear it eventually because I am truly happy with everything that we squeezed into the songs on this album. I have to say I am extra-happy with the last song that we finished for this album.

Mitja: Me too. It's going to be the most significant track on this forthcoming Moonsorrow opus.

Marko: It's going to be a true cornerstone of Folk Metal, haha!!

Luxi: When you signed a deal with Century Media Records this year, and congratulations for that by the way, how much pressure did they put on you regarding the promotion (interviews, playing gigs around, etc.) they expect you to do? Do they understand that you all have day jobs, families and stuff so promotion may be limited especially when it comes to doing longer tours?

Marko: Of course we want to play around as much as possible within some perhaps limited resources but we will definitely play as many shows as we just can. We understand that labels want to keep their bands on the road as much as possible from an album sales perspective. If you don't go out and play it's hard to get any recognition, that's for sure. Playing gigs is probably the best way to get your band promoted and that's something we are aiming to do when the new album is out.

Luxi: As this new album will be released in early spring 2016 will some summer Metal festival slots be your main target?

Marko: Our gigs are getting booked for the next year already. Some festivals have already been booked. I believe by the end of this year we will make more announcements. Germany, Holland, etc. - and Finland, hopefully – will most probably get their share of Moonsorrow, but we'll see. Tuska festival wanted us to play this year but we had to turn down their offer because we wanted to get the new album done and out first.

Mitja: When the new album has hit the stores everywhere we will want to tour in Europe plus a bunch of gigs are planned for Finland as well. We have a tour coming up in China which we will do before this album comes out. It was booked a long time ago. We are also hoping to tour in the States during the fall of 2016 but all this will depend on our other schedules in life. Normally, in the past anyway, whenever we have toured Europe we have also toured the States. Touring is always nice and cool and I have to say that I personally look forward to getting back on the road again.

Marko: I want to point out that changing from Spinefarm Records to Century Media Records hasn't changed a thing as far as our touring plans are concerned. When we were on Spinefarm they didn't pressure us to tour and it will be the same thing be with our new label. I don't believe they will push because they should already know that Moonsorrow isn't the kind of a band that puts the food on our tables. We all have our jobs outside of Moonsorrow.

Luxi: Surviving in the music business is a tough game. Money is tight and the markets have changed drastically due to the digital revolution with illegal downloads being a big part of the picture. In that sense I can understand why labels are under so much pressure nowadays as they are constantly striving to survive and to keep their boats afloat. 

Marko: Yeah, like you said, they are all under a lot of pressure. The whole music industry has changed so much over the past few years. The album sales have gone down a lot and to survive you have to sell something else besides music like band merchandise in its many forms.

Mitja: It's going to be interesting to see how well this new album will sell as the times have changed within just the last five years. What is a positive signal though that people, especially those with more metallic tastes, are still buying music in a physical format. Even vinyl has made a comeback, which is nice of course.

Marko: I also find it great that people who have been there for us since the very beginning are still there and supporting our band which we are grateful for. Many of them are older than us and this older generation of Moonsorrow fans seems to have some money to spend because they all have jobs so they are still buying the physical formats, which is cool. 

Mitja: They seem to understand that if they buy a physical release it supports bands releasing new stuff. They would rather pay for a physical copy than listen to Spotify accompanied by an annoying amount of commercials.

It's going to be five years since our previous album came out so I am more than ready to put some effort into promoting this forthcoming opus; as much as possible, definitely! It's about time to get something out for our fans. They deserve this album for sure.

Luxi: As many of us already know, the creative process can be a real pain-in-the-arse if you don't want to repeat the same concept over and over. It naturally takes a lot of time, patience and nerve to give birth to a new album so can we assume and/or predict that the next album after this one won't come until 2018 or 2019, perhaps?

Mitja: That's really hard to tell of course but you never know. It depends on so many things and it isn't necessarily that hard to get back into the songwriting mood again if a great idea for a concept album occurs all of a sudden. Sometimes it helps if you have a concept or idea for your forthcoming stuff. It makes it easier and faster to compose and come up with the kind of stuff that fits the concept, you know. For example, when we had the idea ready for the previous album, Varjoina..., we knew right from the start how we wanted it to sound. It helped a lot to have the concept in our minds and build the songs around it. We all had an "advance script" about Varjoina... going through our minds which helped us finish the songs pretty fast. If we know in advance what a Moonsorrow album should be all about musically, visually and thematically it helps us reach goals more efficiently. With this forthcoming album we didn't want a concept album and that's one of the main reasons it has taken so long to get it finished.

Marko: And while we are at it, talking about album concepts and/or themes, we don't know for certain where we are at with this band as far as our musical ideas in the future are concerned. We might well record an album that is not a Metal record, who knows. It could be a 100 percent folk album with no Metal elements to it at all. As a single idea it would be worth trying out. It's not something that we would completely rule out, not at the idea level. It would be interesting to see how the response for that kind of an album would be.

Luxi: Finntroll did a fully acoustic/experimental EP (Visom om Slutet, in 2003) some years ago...

Marko: Well, I would not be so much into doing an acoustic album with Moonsorrow but perhaps something along the lines of Opeth's Damnation album with all these Metal elements being stripped out of it, you know. I think they also wanted to dig up some elements from their past releases but leave out the striking Metal elements. It turned out to be a very successful attempt from them in terms of releasing a genius progressive Rock album. We in Moonsorrow could pick up all of the folk parts we think we are pretty good at and progress from there to see what we could do without any Metal elements. That might be interesting in my opinion. But IF we ever did something like that, it would fulfill some of our personal ambitious, I guess. It would all be done with good taste without getting into an embarrassing Spinal Tap situation. I would be ready and open-minded enough to try out more experimental things under the Moonsorrow moniker. It would not be any problem for me personally. It could even be a synth/ambient/soundtrack type of thing that might work under the Moonsorrow's name with big choirs and stuff.

Mitja: Yes, actually I have been thinking the same thing for some time now.

Marko: In a way it's good to keep your mind open to new ideas. We may never carry out these plans any further than the idea level, but never say never. It would be easier to list the type of stuff you'll never hear done under the Moonsorrow moniker; Industrial music and shit like that. 

Luxi: Or maybe some "famous" Finnish Rap artist would make a guest appearance on a Moonsorrow album, haha!!

Mitja: Mysterious are our ways... haha!!

Marko: We already did a project combining Kalevala with Rap music but it won't be released under Moonsorrow's name.

Mitja: We are planning to let people hear it at the Eurovision Song Contest one of these days. The line-up for this project features some known names but it will remain completely secret until 2050, haha!!

Marko: When Europe is ready for it (*laughs*).

Luxi: What could you tell us about the Moonsorrow documentary that is currently in the works? It's going to be put together by a couple of true Moonsorrow fans from Spain, if I am not mistaken...

Marko: Yes, that's in the works indeed and I believe the fellows that are putting it together will be travelling to Finland in November to do some interviews.

Mitja: One of these guys has taken the time to put together basically everything about us with little details taken from old interviews we have done over the years. I believe this documentary will be based on interviews about us so we also want to make sure that the band members put some serious thought into it because obviously the fans of Moonsorrow want it to be as in-depth and informative as possible.

Marko: Also, this forthcoming document is supposed to feature material from behind the scenes; people who have been involved with this band in the background for many years and so on.

Luxi: Do they have a deadline as to when they are trying to get this documentary out?

Marko: Nope. They are using a crowdfunding campaign to get it financed and released as far as I know.

Mitja: The most important thing is that they get the kind of a documentary out that everyone involved will be 100 percent happy with. There's still a lot of work to be done before it's finished. It comes out when it comes out. We will find out soon, I suppose.

Marko: The guys want to see some of those studios where we have recorded our albums when they come to Finland and have some promotional pics taken of us and so forth. Plus, they want to see where each of us live, etc. so they will also get a peek into our private lives.

Luxi: Ideally it would be great timing if the Moonsorrow documentary was released in March 2016 when your new album comes out but I guess that's impossible considering timetables and stuff...

Marko: Ideally it would be a good promotion for this new album, that's for sure, but it won't happen. I believe it will take a while before it's ready for the pressing plant.

Luxi: Where are you going with the album cover artwork at the moment and who's going to be responsible for that?

Marko: An artist named Tuomas Tahvanainen from Nucleart Design is working on it as we speak. He's a guy we have worked with before for some t-shirts. He has done many band logos, album covers, etc. for bands like Impaled Nazarene, Ensiferum, Barren Earth and Deathchain just to name a few. He has mostly done work for Black and Death Metal bands.

Mitja: Tuomas has been around for a long time and is well known for his work because he has been there since the beginning and is a friend of many bands. He has known both of the Sorvali brothers since their teenager days, especially Ville.

Marko: Yes, in that sense he's quite familiar with Moonsorrow because both Henri and Ville know him so well.

Luxi: Did you give him some sort of a sketch for how you want the cover art to look or the album title so that you'd get what you want?

Marko: Well, we told him what style we are looking for plus we sent him the lyrics of our new songs to help him to achieve the result we want for the album cover. We have liked his past works a lot and that's the reason we chose him.

Mitja: We have always had a different artist for each Moonsorrow album and we wanted to continue this tradition for this new Moonsorrow album. We have also used different photographers on each Moonsorrow album because we wanted a different approach as far as photos, graphics, etc. are concerned. It's been refreshing for us to work that way and avoids routine. We always get something new incorporated into this band.

Marko: All this has worked just fine for us, changing the people that have worked with us in the past because each of our albums has been quite different from the others. In a way, the album cover for this new album should reflect the era we are at with Moonsorrow today.

Mitja: Now this reminds me and I cannot recall if we have even talked about this in interviews before but there's a somewhat funny episode related to the Kivenkantaja album which I would like to share with you. We wanted to order a real runestone from some Finnish craftsman just for the album cover. Eventually it was delivered to us in Helsinki by van and our plan was to get some promotional shots of the band taken at the same time. We wanted to find a nice spot for the runestone, a scene with some forest in the background and stuff, and when the time came to lift that runestone out of the van we faced a major dilemma. It was as heavy as hell and even with six people trying to move that mountain-heavy runestone away from the van this whole scene started looking like some hilarious Spinal Tap moment. Just try imagining six not-so-bodybuilder-looking musicians swearing, sweating and looking like dorks, desperately trying to get this stone moved out of the van with eventually ending in disaster, sort of. It was funny when we finally got that piece of rock moved out of the van and placed it on the wheelbarrow we brought. First, it made the tire burst and then the whole wheelbarrow started getting crushed into one miserable chunk of metal by the weight of the stone. I bet Henri's poor mom must have been happy as he borrowed it from her. Anyway, the story goes on and we finally, somehow, got that huge piece of rock placed on the ground in a way it looked alright. We filmed it using a high resolution picture format which we were somewhat happy with. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the work that Spinefarm's ex-graphic artist in those days did with the pictures. He simply photoshopped the cover in a way that it looked like was made with some cheap computer program which wasn't what we were originally looking for. He pretty much ruined it for us.

The stone was left where we originally dropped it, at least for a little while because Spinefarm Records, who had paid for it, raised quite an argument with us as we didn't give a shit about returning to the Spinefarm office. We did not. Eventually some of the guys from their staff came and picked it up and took it back to their office building.

Marko: They left it in their backyard and after a while the stone was full of cracks because some construction workers weren't too careful with the stone. There's was some facade renovation going on at that time near by the Spinefarm Records headquarters. The stone was truly in bad shape and bits and pieces were missing. Some of those pieces ended up going to a bunch of Moonsorrow fans, at least that's what I heard.

Also, we didn't have enough guts to return the crushed wheelbarrow to Henri's mom but dumped it in a landfill instead, haha!!

Luxi: Spinal Tap moments, I see...

Mitja: All of those tiny, embarrassing moments that can happen to a band in the Spinal Tap movie, I have experienced myself in the past 10 years or so while touring with Moonsorrow. We have even had a Stonehenge-type of thing onstage, not with midgets but some of the guys from Swallow the Sun instead, covered by some folio-made outfits and shit. It was hilarious as hell during the gig. This happened in Leipzig, Germany, in 2007. This can be found on the DVD that came along with the Moonsorrow vinyl box set (titled Heritage: 1995-2008 - The Collected Works, released by Blood Music in September 2014).

Marko: Swalow the Sun thought it was such a great idea that they decided to do the same thing to all other bands they have toured with on the very last gig of every tour. They are such nice fellows indeed, haha!!

Luxi: That was the perfect ending for this conversation, so thanks to both of your for your time. All the best finalizing the recordings for the new Moonsorrow album.

Mitja & Marko: Thanks to you, too.

Other information about Moonsorrow on this site

Review: Tulimyrsky

Review: Tulimyrsky

Review: Verisäkeet

Review: V: Havitetty

Review: Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

Review: Kivenkantaja

Video: Aurinko ja Kuu (Fan Video)

Metal Sucks / May 2014

Source: Henri's blog

This text was published at www.metalsucks.net as a part of their "Idol Listening"- section. As it was only concerning the albums found from the upcoming Moonsorrow vinyl box set, the last chapter- concerning Varjoina...- album and the future, was left out. So, for those who are interested, here is the whole story in it´s whole bori...uhm, epicness. If you´ve already read it, skip to the last part straight away, as the rest of the text is completely identical with the already- published version.

THE INFLUENCES OF MOONSORROW THROUGHOUT THE YEARS

a.k.a “how we managed to steal everything and never got caught”

Written by Henri Sorvali 2014

“Andi Fara/ Prologr”

This story begins in a boring suburbs of Helsinki, Finland, in summer 1995 at my parent´s garage.

When we weren´t tape- trading together like hell and hanging at the record stores with my cousin Ville, we spent our time doing project- esque rehearsal demos with my four- tracker at that garage. And among others, there was something called Monhzur.

1995- 1998 : The early years.

Our feeble, partly Finnish- sung attempt to rip off Burzum (sic!) recorded half of a demo, which we found not good enough to even finish (especially because of the cheap drum machine we used at the time) and left us quite a load of ideas and riffs for future use. After the halted demo recordings, we still wanted to do black metal, so it evolved into something we called as "Sorrowwoods". I remember us being quite influenced by Carpathian Forest, Bethlehem, Emperor and Celtic Frost at the time and blended it all together badly, resulting in "Thorns of Ice", which was recorded in different takes during the year 1996. Shortly after making the demo covers, we thought Sorrowwoods was a rather bad name for a band and thought we could use "Moonsorrow" instead, (being a song from Monhzur, actually) and thus the name you nowadays recognize better was used instead.

In early 1997, being heavily inspired at the time by Enslaved´s debut and the last Behemoth demo, we started creating a proper demo instead of using different takes and recordings, resulting into "Metsä". Originally called "Thrymgjöll" but changed in the last minute, we were proud of the result and this time we actually thought this could be worthy to release to other people as well. I guess it´s also safe to confess now that as we didn´t have any "medieval battle"- samples available for our intro nor we had the possibility to record them straight from Conan The Barbarian like they did, we actually took them straight out from Demoniac´s "Prepare for War"- album. Recycling at it´s best!

When I finally got a real sequencer and recording facilities in 1998, we thought only the sky would be the limit. Tämä Ikuinen Talvi was something that had to be done in order to realize that it wasn´t the musical direction we wanted to go after all...but the visual, almost theatrical audio was definitely there to stay, though! Both Enslaved´s “Eld” (obviously) and Emperor´s “Anthems” were a huge influence to us, especially the latter with all the synthwork, and there are traces of Immortal, old Dimmu Borgir and tons of Obtained Enslavement (especially in the last song) scattered everywhere. The demo earned us our first record deal, but before it was even released to the public, we had already dwelled into more slower, heavier- and most of all- folkier sounds, which would be known more as of our style in the following 15 years.

1999- 2003: Slowing down a bit.

Less than two months after the release of the last demo, we were already rehearsing our first full- lenght album with Marko- the strongest influence being Bathory´s “Blood on Ice”, which had completely blown our minds earlier. Combined with a dose of Hades´ “Dawn of the Dying Sun”, Borknagar´s debut, Thyrfing´s “Valdr Galga” and Einherjer´s “Odin Owns Ye All”, we felt we had found our spiritual and musical home. One can still find traces of Enslaved and Ulver scattered every here and there, but the "Finland´s answer to Bathory" was probably the most used term for our debut album.

We continued the path onwards and Marko participated on composing for the first time with us on the next album, “Voimasta Ja Kunniasta”. The creation of the new material already begun a couple of months after the recordings of our debut album, and while we were still influenced by the abovementioned albums -Bathory being even stronger influence than ever- this time we brought even more folk music to the package. I was listening a lot of Scandinavian folk at the time (Garmarna, Annbjørg Lien, Hedningarna and Nordman (!!!) being my favourites), and picked a ton of influences from there, while Marko also brought in some ideas from 70´s proggressive rock for the first time. We also listened a lot of punk and vikingarock while drinking together, and brought some ideas from there too- especially in the song "Kylän Päässä".

The natural evolvement of our sound and tendency for dramatic pompousness led to creating the massive opus "Kivenkantaja", which was the first album we had the artistic courage to blend in any kind of elements we had previously thought not to fit our music. Like Marko, I also have a history with progressive rock, so we listened a lot of old prog vinyls (Rick Wakeman´s “King Arthur” being the most influential record for us at the time due to the historical themes it sported as well) and experimented with all sorts of instruments we could think of. We felt we combined every single musical influence we had ever had in our lives, resulting in a rather interesting blend of metal, folk and progressive music. Jumalten Kaupunki was very much inspired by Bal- Sagoth, and Kivenkantaja bows heavily to Windir, who we all loved. The sampled vocals in the beginning of Tuulen Tytär were taken from a Mari Boine- album, and even though I don´t like Pink Floyd, I had to borrow some influence from them to the ending of Raunioilla with the guitars. (And as you probably know, that sure wasn´t the only one “being inspired by” - part done with that song, hah!)

But when everything is done, topped, creamed and overproduced...how are you supposed to do it even better? With Kivenkantaja, we felt we had painted ourselves into a corner and there would be no way to make another, even more epic and over - the- top Kivenkantaja #2.

So we decided to BLOW THE FUCK OUT THAT CORNER instead.

2004- 2008: Speeding up again.

When me and Ville gathered for the first time to think what would we want to do with the next album, we both agreed to wave goodbye to the overproduced epicness and concentrate more on moss, woods and more "traditional" production. The first song which was completed was “Jotunheim”, and it had a completely different, Kivenkantaja- sounding music in the middle of it at the time. After having started with “Karhunkynsi” and turning it into the enslavedesque it became, I quickly went back to Jotunheim to realize it needs more of that "traditional approach" as well, which was the turning point for the whole sound to become. Soon we were basically inhaling our records shelves like crazy, being heavily inspired by pre- 2000´s era Satyricon, Enslaved, Burzum ...and many other less pompous Norwegian bands who were a big influence for us in the beginning. When the recordings were finished, we were sure no- one would like the album but us. To this day, still I consider Verisäkeet having the best atmosphere from any of our records thus far.

Picking up from where Jotunheim was left, we continued working with Hävitetty in spring 2006. As a band of eternal opposites and controversy, it was pretty natural move to make a way slower album after a rather fast one. During the time we composed and recorded the album I was also having the worst period of my personal life ever, which reflected quite much on the musical side and production as well. I was listening to tons of Cold Meat Industry bands (In Slaughter Natives and Puissance in particular), but held Drudkh, Esoteric and the debut albums from Katatonia and In The Woods extremely inspiring at the time. For what it comes to the biggest influences, though, I can safely say that without “Forgotten Legends”, “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” and “Disintegration” (The Cure) we would had probably sounded way different. My purpose musically was to create a web of music where tones and timbres tangle into each other, forming into a tightening and suffocating grip resembling of drowning, depicting how I felt at the time. I still cannot listen to Hävitetty due to the memories it brings me from the time it was recorded, and consider the album being the most personal I have ever done in my life.

In 1992, there was Conquest of Paradise. Twelve years later, there was Arns Rike. And as I couldn´t wait my turn to rip Vangelis off at 2018, we did Tulimyrsky already in 2008 to break the tradition. The composing of the song started with Marko´s main riff (4:50 onwards) and ended up being probably something Jethro Tull or Yes could had sounded like if they played Enslaved- inspired black metal. The song was probably our most technical entity thus far, it´s structure and arrangements resembling more of a progressive rock song from the 70´s or classical music rather than straightforward Bathory- rip- off. While we had implemented quite much sound effects to our music earlier, Tulimyrsky also took that to completely into another dimension and featured even acting and foley sounds behind the music. (The tradition which kept continuing in “Varjoina”- album later). We were doing the album at our friend´s studio with no strict schedules, so we had time to test ideas, drink beer and have fun as well instead of extremely organized working we were used to do under pressure. While we make extremely visual, dramatic and pompous music on purpose with absolutely no irony on it, we often tend to hide some musical "tributes" here and there for our own amusement. And as usual, all sorts of them were also present this time. Vocal delays done purposedly out of time in the true Norwegian tradition, some parts sounding so much like old Amorphis that we actually asked our friend Tomi Koivusaari to grunt on top of them, and in one riff the vocal arrangement was mimicking Ulver´s "Soelen Gaaer Bag Aase Ned" as closely as possible. The best thing for myself, however, was to actually have a chance to finally hide a Wilhelm scream to the part where the ships were attacking, haha!

2009 onwards: The heavier combination of everything above.

Dust settling and firestorms slowly extinguishing in early 2010, I wasn´t totally satisfied with Tulimyrsky as a composer. I felt it had way too many parts and sometimes stumbled into it´s own technicality. As a personal statement, I wanted to open the next album with something slow, crushing and celticfrosty, resulting into the first minutes of "Tähdetön". We were completely sick of post- black metal (spit!) bands popping out of everywhere and wanted to make a clear distinction on them as well, and thought it had the perfect start for the album. And as the whole concept and tracklist was written before the composing started (!), we ended up creating all the songs in the order they were intended to be, in where the first chords of Tähdetön served us as a great starting point from where to continue onwards. We took inspiration from other stuff as usuall- from the metal side I listened a lot of albums like Thyrfing´s “Hels Vite”, Melechesh´s “Emissaries" and Raate´s “Sielu, Linna” to name a few, and you can spot traces from Gentle Giant, Paul Simon (!!) among other weird influences. And believe it or not- 1800´s traditional Scandinavian funeral music (played with pedal harmonium and other folk instruments, which I unfortunately couldn´t find from Youtube, so this was the closest reference I could dig up and has nothing to do with folk music in particular) was a huge source of inspiration throughout the process, which can be mostly heard in especially in “Kuolleiden Maa”. Perhaps the most influential record during the arrangement- process, however, was the stunning debut album of Triptykon, which inspired us to take heavy (pun intended) advantage on guitar department- adding quite a lot of feedbacking and very bottom string- structured playing to our music besides our usual string arrangements. Which, I believe, will also play a huge part in our upcoming album we are working with as we speak.

“Epilog/ Slaget”

As a music fan first and then a musician, I have never found any shame on giving credit to the artists who have inspired me in my own art. Without the abovementioned artists, albums and songs Moonsorrow wouldn´t probably existed in the first place and I´d like to express my sincere gratitude towards all the people behind my inspiration and influences. Hopefully this wall of text has shed a bit light on the creation of Moonsorrow´s sound throughout the years, and I thank you for actually reading this far. We´re currently in the process of composing our new album, which is scheduled to be recorded at end of 2014 if everything goes as planned. Expect to hear traces of everything listed here with a ton of new elements and other nasty tricks up our sleeve.

Hails,

Henri Urponpoika Sorvali, Moonsorrow.