Latest on Arch Enemy
Arch Enemy has announced via Facebook they are going to be performing at the 10th anniversary for the Loudpark festival that is taking place in Japan October 10. The current lineup which consists of Michael Amott, Daniel Erlandsson, Sharlee D' Angelo, Jeff Loomis and Alissa White-Gluz will be performing in the festival. Previous Arch Enemy members Johan Liiva is going to them on stage since his departure 16 years ago. Christopher Amott which is Michael Amott's younger brother will be joining Arch Enemy at LoudPark.
Posted by Rose F.
Album Review : ~ Purtenance - To Spread the Flame of Ancients
Death metal is always appreciated and preferred for metal heads there is no doubt about it . In the matter of metal music today the underground is full of newcomers who bring enthusiasm and fresh ideas but you have to admit that which bands are putting furious,evil,blasphemous music since late 80's/early 90's era their musical style,composition,lyrics structures everything's are full of reverence . Nowadays a lots of modern death metal is shiny, flashy, and in addition, purely cutthroat and fully influenced by late 80's/early 90's musical era and borrow the vibe which is really appreciable. Death metal does not stagnate in a constant form. Some challengers exist, such as Purtenance , their new album is brilliant addition to the death metal roster.
Well, Two years since their last studio effort "Awaken From Slumber" Nokia based Finnish death metal quartet Purtenance unveiled their third full length album entitled "...to Spread the Flame of Ancients" via Xtreem Music in the beginning of September,2015. This new album is consist with total 11 tracks with 46:18 min running time. Basically Purtenance was formed in 1989 as Purtenance Avulsion. Later they have changed their name as Purtenance in 1991. In before they had released Two full length album entitled "Member Of Immortal Damnation" in 1992 and "Awaken From Slumber" in 2013. Already they are experienced and well renowned in underground music because of their astounding,critical acclaimed,heavy, darkened,old school death metal musical style, hard work,well skilled performance and flawless efforts. Now I am straight diving into one of my most anticipated death metal release of this year.
This new albums whole composition,production is extremely filthy and relentlessly unforgiving . I was interiewed them a few days ago and now I'm reviewing New Purtenance album,to be honest this is more challenging for me haha. At first listen "...to Spread the Flame of Ancients" floored me with their dreaded amalgamation which leads to a hammerin old School blunt force trauma with heavy,twisted riffs, hyped pedal thrusts.Always I lookin for this type of harshest slabs of death metal.This whole album enthralled me with their Unrelenting ,powerful,blasting ,overarching,chromatic, chaotic,rugged, critical acclaimed death metal sound and dense musical style and this new album rekindle my affection,obsession for proper old school death metal. This bands each and every musician exudes tremendous effort in radiant way on this album with excellent diligence and nailed it. They have injected technical riffs works, dark and dirge vibes into aural bashing,furious,fast death metal with strangulated riffs work simultaneously that burns with oppressive fervor. I applaud this new addition and cite them.
Their heavy,ultra-fast sounds and disparate styles all combined in one bold, enlightened display of unbound creativity. Despite the often fast ,furious,cacophonous, heavy and barbarous form of death metal assaults laced with a lots of segments of mid-paced,fast tempo too where Purtenance combines intricate,tricky riffs work,vicious,dirge vibes with cavernous drum thrashes,aforementioned all aspects enriched this album that is very powerful,strong and excellent all at the same time along with a good balance of death metal music, melody and brutality with strangulated ,filthy,thick,groovy riffs work and those effective rasps,relentless growls simultaneously.
I personally appreciate their new albums songs framing style.well, this albums opening track starts with slow,groovy,dense,traditional,old school death metal music with some grandoise growls and a wall of spectacular drums with aggression,deliberate cadence . From this new album we get ultra-fast, oppressive death metal. This album is filled with a slew of twisted , traversed ,chugging, groovy,intricate, blitzkrieg,menacing ,complex riffs line ups. As well bass line up is shifting, chaotic,distorted,rumbled and punchy . Drumming,percussion line up is pummeling,dodgy,punishing,frantic,blast beating and rabidly insane . There are a slew of individual breathtaking ,subtle nuance,cadence,morbidly delicious, ominous riffs,solo and drumming sections which sound briefly something exotic . In each track intricate,spectacular riffs,bass lineups matched in fantastic way. This album indulge strong songwriting and brilliant musicianship . Every instrument is clearly differentiated & represented excellently in each and every single track .Tempo changes are excellent and complicated . Vocals deep rasps, gruff growls , vigorous, crucial, immense , aggressive voice intertwined in a good manner with their utterly savage,merciless,onslaught,violent, vitriol ,uncanny deeply rooted old school death metal sound with a lots of dark,dirge accompaniment and embedded perfectly . I really worship and embrace this new album.
Their latest efforts each song have an energy ,fluency and dominating power. Stand out tracks are all of em . album artwork is mystique,atrocious,indelible. overall "...to Spread the Flame of Ancients" whole album is undeniable,precise,Spectacular,engrossing ,significant, elegant.This album is epitome of death metal. Purtenance have the misfortune of inheriting a genre that peaked, attracted infiltrators and imitators. This pure unadulterated death metal album is one of the best release of this year so far.From now on I'll Keep my eyes and ears peeled for more excellent news from the Purtenance camp in the near future. This whole album is tight,straightforward with aggressive sound that carries Purtenance's signature style and unique composition. I am pleased to say that Purtenance's latest addition strides infinitely higher due to it's strong increase in quality within literally every characteristic latest album. I am pretty damn sure Purtenance can continue their stride in the future. Purtenance provide another unblemished addition to this collection with this complete masterpiece, and thus can be accredited with the contribution to this intriguing and thriving, if not overlooked movement within extreme metal music.
My Rating – 4.8/5
Album Review done by - Souvik Basu. Published on 26 th Sep,2015
EP Review : Shrap - "We Shall Rise"
Shrap impressed me with its powerful sound that grooves your soul to core. Hailing from the city of joy and also the roots to many revolutions, Shrap made me feel the essence of the city in their songs. I loved the way how the band is angry and the way you could relate to it and even you get the sensation of getting angry at some random things. I think that's the best character in the EP, the power to connect with the listener and make him feel the vibe the record carries.
We Shall Rise EP, kicks off with Intro and it sort of sets up your mind to expect something heavy coming in your way. Torture fades in with sirens echoing in the imaginary town which gets replaced by some powerful riffs in few seconds. Torture is quick, aggressive with the power to make your head nod to the intense groovy sound. Next is F**k Them and it's my favorite from the EP. The song is raw, groovy and takes you back to early Sepultura days. This song will make you punch in the air for sure. I had it on repeat mode for a long time, trust me. The band as whole is a package of aggression; I absolutely love the vocals in the song particularly along with those groovy breakdowns. The EP wraps up with title track We Shall Rise.
So if you haven't checked the EP yet you should definitely dig in and I am listening to F**k Them again. It's so intense.
Review by - Adwaita Smashhead Chakma
Hooded Menace Front Man Markus Makkonen Talks about their upcoming album"Darkness Drips Forth"
On this year Finland based doom/death band Hooded Menace will release their fourth full length
album" Darkness Drips Forth". Hooded Menace Front man Markus Makkonen unveiled
about their upcoming album, bands history and many more. Already they are experienced and well renowned in underground music because of their astounding, critical acclaimed, heavy, claustrophobic misery ,enigmatic musical style.
Earlier this fantastic doom/death metal band Hooded Menace served up some devastatingly
sacrilegious, rotten, phenomenal death metal album, EP. So recently I've interviewed Hooded Menace Vocalist Markus Makkonen. I was very keen to interact with him and I've tried to enlighten on their upcoming new album and tried to explore more about his bands. Check out the full interview below. Interview done by Souvik Basu.
1. Hello, how are you doing today?
Markus - Hi Souvik. All good here. Taking it easy just.
2. Hooded Menace was formed in 2007. From 2007 in each and every single year Hooded Menace
gifted us Full length album, EP, Split, demo's, Can you give me a brief history of how the band got
together? Had you been in any bands or musical apparition before Hooded Menace?
Markus - Hooded Menace was born out of Lasse Pyykkö's need to get back and active with metal. He was in a band called Phlegethon in late 80's, early 90's.. HM was his return to all things heavy and murky, in that sense. From there things just kept growing. Now we're releasing the fourth Hooded Menace -album already. I haven't been in the band that long. Jumped abroad in 2012, around the time the previous full-length, Effigies of Evil, was out.
I had been recommended to Lasse for the vocalist slot in his grind/death band, Vacant Coffin, by a mutual friend. That never happened, but out of the blue, got an e-mail from him, asking if i could fill in for Hooded Menace's live-vocalist in a Madrid-show. A couple of years earlier i had been totally into Hooded Menace's album Never Cross the Dead, running around telling everybody how great that record was, so it would've been foolish to say no, really. From there, one thing led to another.. Not too long after Madrid-show, Menace's live bass player quit and Lasse asked if i'd like to handle that department too. Soon HM turned into a proper band, rather than a studio project it had been in the beginning and found myself playing bass on the new Hooded Menace -release of that time, Labyrinth of Carrion Breeze -Ep and still doing the live vocals too.. It has been like this for a couple of years now. That line up just sticked. So, this is how i got to be in the band.
- My own musical background comes from the Finnish metal demo scene of mid/late 90's. Been playing in various bands, with various styles, for 20 years now. The first "bigger thing" to happen to me was joining the Oulu-based death metal unit Sadistik Forest, in which i still am a member too.
3. what bands inspired the direction that Hooded Menace took and motivated you? Writers? Visual artists? Movies? Books?
Markus - Hooded Menace has been drawing from the source of horror films from the very beginning. Especially the 70's European horror flicks. That element of gloominess and horror will always be a part of our music. It is our concept. In the beginning it was coming more directly from certain cult classics, but these days the theme is there still, but in more abstract form.
Musically, we have been described of being somewhere in between Black Sabbathy doom and Autopsy-like death metal. I think those parts are still there. Maybe with a growing influence from British death/doom pioneers.
4. There are two basic ways of looking at music. In the first, there is a mechanism to the arrangement of certain tones ,musical style. in the second, a narration occurs where a story is told or a poetic function completed. In your view of compositions, which is more important? Where were you when you first thought the project had long term potential for you?
Markus - All music in Hooded Menace is written by Lasse. He is the soul of Hooded Menace, in that sense. We, the rest, are rather the performers, if you want to put it that way. I suppose, Lasse seeks for the improvement as a songwriter and emphasizing of certain moods, with his music for HM.
5. What for you is the significance of the name, "Hooded Menace"?
Markus - It comes from the Blind Dead -movies, really. where the hooded, bearded and eyeless undead suck the life our of their helpless victims... heheh. So, it suits a metal band well...
6. If you could tour with other bands in metal, who would you pick if you were looking for bands similar to Hooded Menace?
Markus - Winter would be one, definitely. They pretty much defined our kind of music with Into Darkness -album, back in the day. Guys from Asphyx are fantastic people and we keep on bumping into them at festivals here and there. That would be a killer tour too! Total crushing of the helpless!! We're going to tour with Mourning Beloveth this December. Looking forward to it also.
7. Hooded Menace released their debut album in 2008. From 2007 Hooded Menace shaped the style of dom/ death metal music in a well manner. How do you maintain this consistency yet keep developing with each album? How do you write your riffs, songs? What is the most difficult part about composing songs as you do?
Markus - You really would need to ask Lasse about that, but as far as I see it, he avoids of making the same record twice. Rather, he keeps on evolving and opening new doors with his music. Darkness Drips Forth will be, once again, a different bag of bones, when compared to previous Hooded Menace albums. A different angle to the same thing, maybe.
8. Do you have a preference for type of equipment? In your mind, how important is equipment to the production of music?
Markus - It is pretty double-edged, really. Yes, you need certain level of equipment to work without distraction from the poor gear, but we are definitely no tech freaks or hi-fi geniuses.. We rather keep to the stuff we like, even there might be better quality equip available for doing the same thing. The tool has to fit the purpose, i think, and our music does not especially demand any state of the art technology.
9. well, now I'm going to the main point about new album "Darkness Drips Forth". Already we have saw the new album artwork released and the Official album teaser from upcoming album "Darkness Drips Forth". To be honest the artwork is wicked. I'm super amped for the manifestation from upcoming album and obviously for the whole album too haha well, When were these tracks written, and how does Hooded Menace go about the writing process?
Markus - Thanks man! Glad that you liked the cover. It was done by Justin Bartlett and it definitely is different from your regular metal cover, for sure. The material for Darkness... has been coming for a year, or year and a half, I think. Lasse writes all the music first, band hears the demos, and then we all start to look for suitable lyrics for the music. Finally, the rest of us learn our bits and pieces and we start to rehearse the new material as an band. It's mainly like is, if you put the long story short.
10. What's going on as far as lyrical themes on new album ?
Markus - It is the "suffocating horror"-feel still.. Definitely in more abstract form this time. Rather than writing some specific spook-story, we wanted to achieve maybe a style that will make each listener to find his/hers own view of the concept. It is definitely more like an painting, than a short novel, this time.
11. How did you get into this chaotic , multi-layered ,ultra-dense, monolithic death metal musical style laced with blackened, gloomy atmospheric vibe form of music and kindly explain about this music genre according to you?
Markus - Hahah! That is a nice way to put it! What struck me with Hooded Menace in the first place, back in the day when i was still "just" a fan, was the brilliant combination of two musical styles i adore - doom and death metal. The Sabbathian riffs are there, but it still has that Obituary/slow Morbid Angel -feel to it. Don't know what makes that kind of music seep out of Lasse's mind, but to me it sounds killer!
12.How would you describe the sound of the new album to someone who hadn't heard it, and what distinguishes your music from any other act in the same genre?
Markus - Darkness Drips Forth is the most extreme Hooded Menace release, by far. It has our slowest and heaviest stuff in it, but also it has a strong emphasis on melody too. It really goes from extreme to extreme... Four songs and almost 45 minutes of melancholy and yet heavy music. Like Crowbar playing Bathory, if you want to put it that way.
13. Do you guys have any official videos coming out soon?
Markus - At the moment, I really do not know yet. The length of the songs, does set the difficulty level for a music video pretty high. Don't know really. It depends a lot of Relapse Records.
14. How do you explain the album title "Darkness Drips Forth". what it means and the album art and how it coincides with the lyrics, themes?
Markus - The theme of "dripping death" occurs in the lyrics. It probably describes also the best the gloomy, doomy feel of the music too. Like something black oozing from your speakers and raining down (slowly) from the skies. Dripping darkness is also maybe a metaphorical way of putting things into perspective, where everything veers slowly towards it's natural end. It is really metaphorical and abstract with this one. Maybe listeners can come up with better description, after hearing the album and reading the lyrics! The album art, is once again based on our concept with the Blind Dead. Just like on every Hooded Menace album. Yet, it maybe has a little bit more deranged feel to it, this time.
15. Who came up with the album cover? I personally cherish Hooded Menace's each and every album artwork because those are truly indelible, remarkable, appreciable too.
Markus - It is of Justin Bartlett's doing. We wanted to work with him, as he has definitely his own style, that stands out from your regular guy, definitely. We told him one or two main guidelines, but he took it from there.
16. What's the first gig you ever went to? Have you been to any killer live shows lately?
Markus - My first show? Hmm... That must've been some local punk show in Finland in mid-90's! When living in middle parts of Finland, like i was and when most of the bands coming from outside our country did only Helsinki back then, the supply was mainly just local bands. Luckily enough, i got to see Amorphis and Sentenced quite a many times. I saw Nightwish when they were a demo band just! But yeah, it was mainly Finnish bands only. One of the first ones from outside of Finland was Norwegian black metal band Covenant.
We played Jalometalli festival just recently. Got to see quite a many cool bands there. Shining, Candlemass, Tyranex, Saxon, Obituary... My definite favourites were Finnish legendary thrash band A.R.G. and the young devil-worshipping bunch Bonehunter.
17. In before you guys performed a lots of gigs so, Which show was the most memorable to you so far? Do you get a good crowd response? Did you get offers to play in other countries or anything like that?
Markus - The crowd thing in doom is very funny, at least to me, when i got to the scene after playing grindcore and death metal for quite some time... I mean, had seen just people going nuts, moshpits and such and then... BANG... you're fronting this way cool band and all you see is people standing and slowly swaying along to the music.. At first show, I was like... what... do they not like it?! Where is the pit?!? After the show, people came still telling how they had liked the show and appreciated it, but it took definitely a couple of shows to get used to it. Doom fans rather listen, than go mental, I suppose.
- There have been a couple of really cool ones we have done with HM. Hellfest being one, for sure. I mean, being in the same bill with Napalm Death, Asphyx, Candlemass, Kiss, Morbid Angel, Hypocrisy... it was just something truly awesome!! Maryland Deathfest was great too! We do not play that often, so each gig has it's own story to it, really.
18. Do you study other bands music to come up with ideas?
Markus - I suppose you will have try to cut that down, as the influences will sneak out even if you wanted them or not.
19. Appreciate your howling scream, hoarse ,snarling, sneering , deep rasps , deep lung-burning roars, immense voice. how do you prepare your vocals before the studio or especially for live performances? Did any band in particular inspire you in the shrieking department?
Markus - Death metal/extreme metal vocals are something I have been able to do naturally, well, as long as I've tried. I don't have any special care-taking or warm up to it. Just plunge into it. Can keep the voice intact on tours and will not have to force anything. This is why i do the live vocals in Hooded Menace. We, the rest of the band, keep forcing Lasse to do the studio-vocals still, as he really has an unique sound to it. It has the cobwebs!! Hahah! But he does not like it at all, so out of practicality, I do that part live.
In Sadistik Forest i do a lot of that low growl/high scream -thing. I don't know if anybody in particular inspired me to do it that way, but have always appreciated guys who can do a variety of things with their voice.. Like Dani Filth, Burton C. Bell and Glen Benton (especially early days). Steve Tucker has been an influence to me and of course Corpsegrinder... Nick Holmes... Started doing death metal as a kid, when somebody said that my grunts sounded like Chris Barnes.. So, he too. Definitely.
20. Is there a difference in the band's sound as compared to the EPs and full length album you've released in the past?
Markus - Now? Well... We had a different studio environment this time. We went to England, instead our regular hide-out in Finland, to work with Chris Fielding (Napalm Death, Electric Wizard etc). Especially, we wanted to get bigger sound to bass and drums and i think we did that.
21. Relapse Records has been a great supporter of extreme metal, you're signed to them now. How did this happen?
Markus - Don't know the facts, as i was not in the band when the deal was done, but as far as I've gathered, they contacted HM (amongst a couple of other labels) after our deal with Profound Lore ran out and well.. they had the best offer. Relapse is also know for their work with extreme bands, just like you said, so they do know how to market and work with our kind of thing.
22. What do you do as individual band members to relax, when not working on music? Do you have jobs or business?
Markus - When playing something as marginal as death/doom metal, it is really hard to get by, just by the music itself. I have a job outside the bands, to survive. Never been a very career oriented person, so as long as the work provides me enough money to survive AND it makes playing metal possible, I'm 100% ok with it. Never wanted to be a attorney, doctor or anything.. Was not motivated enough as an student for that, but luckily enough, I've always found a job somewhere, that takes a long haired metal guy onboard. Music is basically my time off... If not playing, at least listening to it with extreme passion. You can't take that away from me, really. Way of life kind of an thing.... The same goes for all of us, I suppose.
23. What albums are you listening to lately or just the bands and albums in general you're really digging right now and tell me about your anticipated album of this year?
Markus - Just recently, I've been listening a lot the new albums by Bell Witch, Ghost and Arcturus. New Paradise Lost is a splendid record too! Of the albums to be released yet, I'm looking forward the most for new My Dying Bride, maybe. Want to listen the new Grave Pleasures album, and Public Image Ltd also. Oh, and I've heard that the new Amorphis one will be way heavier than their previous ones, due the Tales from the 1000 Lakes -shows they did, so will check that one out for sure.
24.last one question, what are your future band goals & tell us something about upcoming tour. Lastly, a lots of teenagers aim to be full-time musicians. Many of them might be without any proper guidance, any words of wisdom for them?
Markus - Well, Darkness Drips Forth is out at October 30th. We play the official album release show in Turku, the next day, at Finnish death metal festival Turun Kuolema. In December we head out to Europe for 10 shows, with Mourning Beloveth. Starting from Hamburg, ending to Eindhoven Metal Meeting. It will be pure doom-mayhem, I guarantee that!
Will be cool to see where this album will take us after that. Hopefully to some new locations again. Sadistik Forest is also recording the third studio album as we speak. Will be doing my bass lines for that, very soon. There's also a old school death metal project with guys from Satanika coming.. So, a lot is on it's way.. Hope you like it!!
As far advices go, i might not be the best guy to give them, but i suppose the main one is to be patient. Very few today, if any, will have the overnight success. It takes guts to grind your way to bigger and bigger stages... A lot of blood, sweat and beers.. But don't give up! If you want it badly, things will happen for you. Sooner or later. Wanting it, is the key, i think.
25. That's all I've got right now. best of luck for upcoming release .This album is one of my anticipated release of this year. thanks a lot for enduring this torture haha. Any final thoughts, comments for the readers? If I forgot anything, please insert it in here.
Markus - Thanks for the well-though questions bro! Let's keep it extreme!!
Interview done by Souvik Basu. Published on 05/09/2015
Interview With Phenomenal Finnish Old School Death metal Band Purtenance
Finland's purveyors of chaos and wrath, Purtenancefrontman Ville unveiled about their upcoming album, bands history and many more.On this year Finland based old school death metal band Purtenance will release their third full length album. Earlier this old schoolrotten death metal band Purtenance served up some devastatingly sacrilegious, rotten, phenomenal death metal album, EP.
So recently I've interviewed Purtenance Vocalist Ville. I was very keen to interact with him and I've tried to enlightenon their upcoming new album and tried to explore more about his bands. Check out the full interview below. Interview done by SouvikBasu.
Ville : Thanx for asking, I'm fine. I just went back to work after summer vacation and I must say Purtenance have had keeping me very busy during my holiday.
2. Purtenance was formed in 1989 as "Purtenance Avulsion" and later changed their name as "Purtenance"from 1991,Can you give me a briefhistory of how the band got together?Had you been in any bands or musical apparition before Purtenance?
Ville : First I have to clarify something. I'm not part of the original line-up, just because I was 9 years old when Purtenance started!And I was 11 when "Member..." came out, so I have basically grown with that album playing in my stereo's! Harri is my cousin,so that's why I'm here now. But what I do know from the beginning of Purtenance is something like this: Harri and Juha were friendsand shared the same kind of taste what comes to metal, so they started to play together and grappedTimoHayrinen for vocals (and bass at first!).They played and practiced constantly until came time to make a demo. So they went to record demo with TimoTolkki (yes, the one and only)and soon after that changed their name to just Purtenance and started to write material for "Member..." and other members joined them,like Toni Honkala for instance. They played some local shows and few somewhere else, with names like Amorphis, Sentenced, Beherit,Convulse and other's just to name couple. Purtenance was basically their first real band! But when it came time to "grow up", which means in Finland,you go to military service, Purtenance went on hibernation, just to awake again in 2011! I've used to play drums in a punkrock band but it was just a hobby.
3. what bands inspired the direction that Purtenance took and motivated you? Writers?Visual artists?Movies?Books?
Ville : Amorphis, Sentenced and other legendary Finnish bands sure had their influence to Purtenance,but for some reason all Finnish bands tend to have their own unique style, if you compare to Swedish bands,they have their HM-2 sound in almost all of them. At least bands from that era. Horror movies, Lovecraft, Chris Moyen, H.R Giger and many other'sall have had their art to give inspiration to the chaos of Purtenance. I personally have been drawing inspirations from the works of Tolkien and Terry Pratchett,so that's why I might have slightly crazy ideas for lyrics etc. And my musical background have punk and hardcore in it, so there might be some echoes from there too.
4. There are two basic ways of looking at music. In the first, there is a mechanism to the arrangement of certain tones, musical style.In the second, a narration occurs where a story is told or a poetic function completed. In your view of compositions, which is more important?Where were you when you first thought the project had longterm potential for you?
Ville : It all starts from the soundscape. It lays the foundation for songs to grow. Stories build up from there, they rise to their high when all our membersgives their twisted essence to the plot. I think old members never actually thought that Purtenance would survive through the times.But for some odd reasons here we are still playing and enjoying what we do!
5. What for you is the significance of the name, "Purtenance"?
Ville : The name itself have no deeper meanings. It just happened to pop in someones eye and seemed suitable for death metal band.So sorry, no supernatural or occult or blasphemous or anything like that in the name! For myself, Purtenance stands the fact that Harri have started this, with his friends,long time ago and that I do respect a lot and thank the opportunity that I can be part of this now.
6. If you could tour with other bands in metal, who would you pick if you were looking for bands similar to Purtenance?
Ville : Ouch, though one, Incantation would be very great band to play with or even tour! But we donÕt do this for living, you know, so big or long tours are not in our plans.
7. Purtenance released their debut album in 1992. After that a huge gap Purtenance unveiled their sophomore album in 2014 and the third one will release on this year.From 1992 Purtenance shaped the style of old school, rotten death metal music. How do you maintain this consistency yet keep developing with each album?How do you write your riffs, songs? What is the most difficult part about composing songs as you do?
Ville : We are simple people with limited talents. It is the way we have always been. We just in somehow seem to find ourselves writing this kind of music and it is all four of us nowadaysthat came up with songs that have very similar formulas in them as old ones but still they all have something uniqueness in them.Juha writes most of the music (we all write something to every release) and rest of us just brings our own spices to the mix.
Ville : With good tools you can achieve lot. But with decent equipment and with practise you can survive. We are not rich people that have lot of money to spend on equipmentso we use what we can afford. But in the end it really does not matter how good your equipment is, as long as you have good songs and music to release the magic is there.Of course if we would follow trends, which we don't, production should be super polished with squashed dynamics like most modern day acts have. We are just not in to that.
9. well, now I'm going to the main point about new album "...to Spread the Flame of Ancients". Already we have saw the new album artwork released and the manifestationfrom upcoming album "Invocatio". To be honest the artwork and track both is wicked. When were these tracks written, and how does Purtenance go about the writing process?
Ville : Album art is yet again done by the great Chris Moyen. He once again had total freedom to do whatever he wanted and the results are filled with that dark and morbid artthat he has almost trademarked. Big thanks to him again! The whole album was written during 2014 and 2015. All songs spawned from ideas that we all had. We just arranged them together.We all wrote some music to new album but Juha brought most of new music to it. I did almost all lyrics, Harri wrote lyrics for couple of songs, but I edited them to fit to songs and tomy singing. After the songs were written we played them through again and again to find that final form of them.
Ville : There is lot of occultistic stuff in there. Dark stories of mystic things that reflect modern life through metaphores. I tried to write about things in a way that I haven't previously done.Some of tunes just gave so much inspiration to write about and rhytmic elements spawned words in to my head. Of course loose all around theme circles around Ancients, what of course isstraight from Lovecraftian novels and stories. I even (once again) wrote one songs in finnish language, cause it just seemed more fitting to that song, I also wrote the music to that song.
11. How did you get into this rotten, old school, heavy form of music and kindly explain about this music genre according to you?
Ville : Death metal is the must straight forward style of metal with what you can express yourself in it's boundaries. Brutal, truthfull, sincere, crushing way to release your own visions.When I was younger I listened lot of more "easier" music, but when I got older I started to search something more extreme. Then I found death and black metal, and for some unknownreason death metal inflicted fierce flame in to my soul. Maybe it is it's heaviness compared to any other genre. Black metal also is close to my heart, but it is it's musical side, notthe philosophical in most cases.
Ville : Heavy with echoes from the past. I don't know if we are that different from any other, but at least we try to keep ourselves honest for what we are doing. We don't do decisions basedif something would sell or not. We do what we wan't to do.
Ville : Aaah, we have been planning something but in this case we just haven't decided yet should we do video or not. We have couple of ideas but there is no certainty will we ever put them on use.
14. How do you explain the album title "...to Spread the Flame of Ancients". what it means and the album art and how it coincides with the lyrics, themes?
Ville : It is sort of word play with many different meanings. It can be seen that we are old band that still have the flame of death metal burning in us and we wan't to share it too. Or it can beseen as a title for the loose theme and story behind some lyrics, Lovecraft again, anyone? I wan't to give people change to find the meanings by themselves and not try give too much answers already chewed.
15. Who came up with the album cover? I personally cherish Purtenance's each and every album artwork because those are truly indelible, remarkable, appreciable too.
Ville : As said, Chris Moyen did the artwork again. And if we can decide he will be making our album cover's forever. If we ever make any more albums that is. He has kept that constant high level on hisart through the years and we own him so much for helping us to have that visual side to our music that seems to fit every time perfectly.
Ville : It seems that my first live show experience have been lost in time (or at least from my memory!). But last killer show I saw was when AnaalNathrakhwere in Tampere, supported by Mörbid Vomit!Even thou AnaalNathrakh played super fast and memorable show, Mörbid Vomit played some new songs from their upcoming album, and I must say they were the best thing that night! Just wait that album!It won't let you down, I guarantee!
17. In before you guys performed a lots of gigs so, Which show was the most memorable to you so far? Do you get a good crowd response? Did you get offers to play in other countries oranything like that?
Ville : Well to this day, we haven't played that many shows, but two shows have been most memorable. Our first show in 20 years at Steelfest Open Air in Hyvinkää, Finland and Ritual Zombi Fest atMadrid, Spain.Both in 2013. They might not been our best shows, what comes to performance, but still they were something so unbelievable, that they can't be forgotten. Usually we have had decent response from the crowds, nobody have beaten up us, yet! From time to timewe get requests to play outside of Finland, but to this date, nothing has ever really happened. We don't know why, 'cos we don't even ask that much from coming to play, but for some reasonsthese things just don't seem to happen, even that the promoters and fans really would like us to play in their places.
Ville : Simply, no.Cause that would just end in, us taking too much things from them. We of course listen music a lot and we can't help if our subconsciousness takes influences, with we try to do our musicjust by ourselves. What really can't be done, because Black Sabbath have already made all the best riffs.
19. Your vocals style is raspy, aggressive,tortured and raw. appreciate your vocal style. how do you prepare your vocals before the studio or especially for live performances?Did any band in particular inspire you in the shrieking department?
Ville : I don't prepare! We just have rehearsals so often that my voice is practiced there already. TimoHayrinen might have the voice that I have listened and drawed influences the most. After all,I must have had listened "Member..." at least thousand, if not more, times! Or do you mean the screaming stuff? I have listened lot of Norwegian black metal through the years, so from therecomes that.
Ville : Well of course there is. It is partly because we have different members now and different amps, guitars, pedal etc. We also play with different tuning than guys used to play back in the days.For some reason we still manage to sound slighty the same, no matter what year it is, or at least we think that it is like that.
21. XtreemMusic has been a great supporter of extreme metal, you're signed to them now. How did this happen?
Ville : Story that has been told so many times but here it is again... Dave originally released "Member..." through his Drowned Productions. Guys kept in touch with him and in 2011 when Dave heardthat Juha and Harri started to play again together (I have been playing with Harri since 2006 in a different group), he proposed that if he would release "Member..." again for it's 20 yearof existence and that if Purtenance would rise from the grave he will make a contract with us. So we released "Sacrifice..." in 2012 and "Awaken..." in 2013. "... to Spread..." is actuallyour last album within this deal, so we have to see what future brings to us...
Ville : Somethings is just best to keep private, but yes, we all have our day jobs. Purtenance does not bring food to our tables!
Ville : Lately I have been listening lot of Tau Cross. I'm a huge Amebix fan and especially enjoyed their last album "Sonic Mass" and when I heard that Rob Miller has a new band,I was really excited! For this year I'm really waiting Mörbid Vomit's debyt album!
24.last one question, what are your future band goals & tell us something about upcoming tour. Lastly, a lots of teenagers aim to be full-time musicians.Many of them might be without any proper guidance, any words of wisdom for them?
Ville : We don't have any plans after confirmed shows this year and 2016 spring. We have to sit down and think what we are going to do... We are really waiting the Finnish Death Metal Maniacs Festthat is happening next week,TimoHayrinen will perform with us for the first time in 20 years and probably for the last time ever! Well we don't do this for living, but couple of good tipscould be that never stop believing in yourself, always respect others, don't talk shit about others and lastly, if you don't know something, ASK nicely and you will have answers.
25. That's all I've got right now. best of luck for upcoming release. This album is one of my anticipated release of this year. thanks a lot for enduring this torture haha.Any final thoughts, comments for the readers? If I forgot anything, please insert it in here.
Ville : Thank you and hopefully you don't disappoint to "...to Spread the Flame of Ancients". Haha! I will end this like we always end interviews, STAY TRUE, STAY BRUTAL!
Interview done By - Souvik Basu. Published on 02/09/2015.
Album Review : ~ Purtenance - To Spread the Flame ...
Hooded Menace Front Man Markus Makkonen Talks abou...
Interview With Phenomenal Finnish Old School Death...