Viikate Interview

Viikate decided to celebrate its 21th anniversary with a double album “Katkerimmat 2011-2017”, in which there are a lot of hits and some rare tracks, and a tour around Finland.
We had the opportunity to meet Kaarle and talk about this greatest hits, the collaboration with Timo Rautiainen, the Christmas songs from Koti-Viikate-Teollisuus and much more.

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Sinphobia Interview

“Assault Your Fears” is the motto of the Italian death groove metal band Sinphobia.
The band is working on the third album, from which has been released the first single “Selflessness”, and they are hungry for gigs.
We had the opportunity to talk with them about their music, the upcoming album, the experience at W.O.A. and much more.

-Hey guys, how are you doing?
We are doing great actually! We are very busy at the moment both playing gigs and writing new material for our upcoming album, we are excited because we want to deliver the best music we can to our new and old followers, it’s a crucial phase for the band.

-For whom don’t know Sinphobia, would you mind to introduce the band and give us some biographical hints?
Sinphobia is a four piece death groove metal band based in Verona, Italy.
The History of the band began more than ten years ago with the ideas of the founder Ivan (guitarist) and, with several line-up changes, led to the release of the first self-titled Full lenght in 2014.
The line-up you can hear and see established itself in 2016 with the publication of the second Full lenght “Awaken”. With this new powerful line-up the band has started to grow more and more carrying its music all across Italy and Europe playing several shows in Ukraine,Germany,France, Czech Republic, Slovenia and gaining the stage of Wacken Open Air in 2016.

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-Why did you choose Sinphobia as name? Is there any kind of story behind?
The word Sinphobia combines two other words, “Phobia” (Fear) and “Sin”, the latter incorporating a double meaning, “without” (sine in Latin) and “with” (originating from Greek). The concept behind that is depicting the double nature of human existence, which is constantly tormented by the presence of fears which keep man and mankind from fulfilling their own dreams.
From the name itself comes the band’s motto which is “Assault Your Fears”; fear, in all its forms, is our biggest limitation and needs to be overcome in order to become masters of our own existence.


-Your last album “Awaken” has been released in 2016, what can you tell about it? In 2018 is expected the release of a new album, what can we expect from it?
Actually “Awaken” is the re-issue of our first full length “Sinphobia” and we digitally released it through our label, Bakerteam Records. “Awaken” includes all our old songs plus two new songs which will be featured in our new album.
“Awaken” was kinda fundamental because thanks to it we had the opportunity to offer a small taste of how the new album will be and, at the same time, to show the change the new band members brought to the sound of the band.


-From the upcoming album has been released the first single “Selflessness”, what can you tell about this song?
“Selflessness” is by far one of the most kick-ass songs of the new album. We wrote it thinking about an ongoing shout throughout the song based on a tight rhythmic pattern. Lyrically “Selflessness”, as the title might suggest, deals with the liberation from the Self.
Our Ego keeps us from feeling ourselves a part of the creation and leads us to feel us privileged and superior to other beings. When our Ego is strong we are easily victim of our fears because we only think about ourselves and what we don’t have or what we desperately want. If we let our Ego be eaten by our fears we will tame the monsters in our head and we will be finally free getting back to our natural and primordial state, a harmonic part of the universe.

 


-Your music’s define death/groove metal but where does Sinphobia root its influences?
Sinphobia can easily be described as a mix of modern American Death Metal and old school European Thrash Metal but we like to add our own style, made of pure energy, groove and contamination from other genres.
The key point of the band are rehearsals, everything we compose is played, arranged and tested in our rehearsal room, everyone in the band listens to many other genres beyond metal so when we play we turn our room in a crazy sound lab when we try to mix everything in order to write bonecrushing songs with a fresh and new sound.


-In 2016 you’ve played at Wacken Open Air, what do you remember of that experience and how did the share react to your performance?
Wacken Open Air has been for sure the most mindblowing show we’ve played so far. We have been amazed by the professionalism and working ethic people at WOA have, we were the most unknown band there and we were treated like the number one band on the main stage, we didn’t take that for granted. Our performance has been unforgettable, the energy which such a big crowd gives you is unbelievable and helped us being, as we were told by the guys in the backstage, the loudest band in the metal battle.

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-You have been on tour also in Ukraine and in some other European countries, how was play outside from Italy? What are the main differences when you play in Italy compared to other countries?
Having the possibility of playing outside our country is always a blessing because we have the opportunity to meet new people and friends and, at the same time, we can understand better how music and metal scene goes all across Europe.
What we have experienced is that when we play abroad, even if we the crowd doesn’t know us and our songs, they are less “shy” than Italian crowd and they actively participate to the show. For example in Ukraine every night was a mass murder, we couldn’t expect such a great response from them and we are definitely looking forward to coming back there soon.


-You’re constantly on tour but what’s on plan for the future?
For sure we don’t want to stop our live activity, concerts are like oxygen for band’s lungs. As we said before we are working on our new album and therefore we will be forced to take a little brake but don’t worry, we will come back with more shows hopefully all around Europe, there are many countries we haven’t been to yet and where we absolutely want to have a blast meeting new friends.

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-Talking about the metal scene in Italy, how do you see it?Is it growing up in the time?
Metal scene in Italy is great, that’s for sure! There are many amazing band and we have the pleasure to consider some of them friends more than colleagues. Metal scene and music scene in general grows faster and faster, the only problem is that the scene doesn’t support itself and there are more musicians on stage than off stage, therefore there are fewer places to play because many live clubs are forced to close due to the amount of bills they have to pay.


-We have done with this interview, thank you so much for your time! Would you like tell something to our readers?
First of all we want to thank you for this amazing interview, it’s been a honor and a pleasure. Then we want to invite all the readers to check our official Facebook page and our website Sinphobia.com where they will find all our songs, all our videos and everything about ourselves. Lastly we want to push you to Assault Your Fears! Take control of your lives, don’t let anything block the way between you and your dreams!

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Santa Cruz Interview

Santa Cruz is back with the new album “Bad Blood Rising” just released by Sakara Records.
The young band from Helsinki is ready to put the stage on fire with their shows starting from Finland and looking forward more gigs around the world in the next months.
We had the opportunity to meet Archie and Middy before their show in Pori and talk about the new album, the life on tour and the plans for 2018.

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Dark Tone Company Interview

Dark Tone Company debuted some weeks ago with its first album “Light to the flies”, the Finnish band gets inspiration from the old school Swedish melodic death metal.
We had the opportunity to meet the guys and discover something more about DTC, their music and the plans for the future.

 

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Ensiferum Interview

The Finnish folk metal band Ensiferum is back with a new album “Two paths” which has already received great consent.
After the mini-European tour “Two paths the beginning”, it’s time for a Finnish tour just before fly to South America on next month.
We had the opportunity to meet Netta before the show in Pori and talk about the new album, the tour and much more.

 

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Temple Balls interview

Ph. Onni Wiljami Kinnunen

Temple Balls is an energetic 5-piece hard rock band from Oulu, Finland.
Their debut album Traded Dreams” has been released last February via Ranka Kustannus, after a lot of shows in Finland they are ready to play in Japan and Ukraine and then to work on a new album.
We had the opportunity to meet the frontman Arde and the guitar player Niko and talk about their firs album, the upcoming shows in Japan and Ukraine and much more.

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Mokoma interview

Ph. Joonas Brandt

Mokoma started its music journey in 1996, since then the band has reach a big success in Finland, touring along the country with their energetic shows.
This autumn the band will go to the studio to work on a new album which will be relese in 2018.
We had the opportunity to meet Tuomo, Kuisma and Santtu after their show in Pori and talk about the upcoming album, their experience in Japan and much more.

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Peer Günt interview

Ph. Pekka Qvist

Peer Günt is one of the most long-lived band from Finland, since 1976 their rock music filled with blues is the soundtrack for many rockers.
Timo Nikki is the only original member, the line-up has changed a lot in this long time, Pete Pohjanniemi and Sakke Koivula have joined the band in 2006.
We had the opportunity to interview with them before their show at Porispere.

-Hey guys, How are you doing?
We are fine, thank you for asking.

-You’re one of the most longest band from Finland, in fact you’ve started back in 1976, how has been your music journey so far?
I don’t know, I could say long and same shit every weekend (ed. laughs).
It’s routine for us but we have fun.

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Ph.Harri Hinkka

-Can I ask why did you choose Peer Gün as name?
I was young, despered and I needed money…actually it’s hard too remember, it’s been so long time ago.
It was the choose of another one, it’s from a flower, peer gynt is a varieties of roses.
It was a good idea then and we don’t need to change it anymore because everybody know us with this name.

-It’s been a while since the release of your last studio-album, are you working on a new one?
Everyday somehow we are working on new material but we are slow. We don’t have hurry because we haven’t still played live all the songs from previous ones.

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-Today you’re playing at Porispere, what do you expect from this show?
Nothing in particular, let’s just hope it’s not gonna rain, for us it’s routine and we are gonna have fun.

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-Looking to the rock/metal scene nowday, do you have any favourite band?
I’m gonna say Danko Jones but of course there’s a lot of good bands out there.

-We have done with this interview, would you like to say something to your fans?
Better like us or fuck off! (ed. laughs).

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Disco Ensamble interview

Disco Ensamble started over 20 years ago in the little town of Ulvila, Finland, in this long journey their music has evolved from post-hardcore to rock.
After 5 years from their album “warriors”, last January, they released a new full length “Afterlife”.
We had the opportunity to meet the frontman Miikka Koivisto before their show at Porispere and talk about their last album, the plans for the future and much more.

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-Hey Miikka, how are you doing?
I’m fine, thank you!
This is the last festival show for this summer, yesterday we played at Jurassic Rock in Mikkeli, here is nice today because it’s not raining.

-Your new album ”Afterlife” has been released last Jannuary, what can you tell about it?
It’s our 6th album, I think it’s a pretty straight rock and each song tells a story.

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-Talking about your name, Disco Ensamble, why did you choose it?
It was long long time ago when we were teenagers. At first the name was Discompany then we changed in DisCo but it was too confusing, actually it’s still very confusing, but at some point we added ensamble and it dosen’t make any sense at all, but we’re stuck with that so, important is that people remember us.

-Your music is define post-hardcore but where does Disco Ensamble root its influences?
Well, now our music is more rock, but yeah, we come from an hardcore background.
When we started to play it was more progressive-hardcore and hardcore-punk and our influences come from there.

-Today you are playing at Porispere, it’s kind of play at home cause you’re from Ulvila which is pretty close to Pori, how do you feel and what do you expect from today’s show?
I think it’s our 4th time here at Porispere, so it’s going to be nice.
Actually, we all have lived in Helsinki almost 20 years now but it’s always as home when we come here.
In a way it’s a gig like all the other but it’s nice to play at home.

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-What’s on plan for the future?
We are gonna do some club shows in the fall and winter, we are also going to Switzerland to play some shows, so we are on tour until Christmas then we will take a little break.
In the future it would be amazing to play in other countries like U.K. but let’s see what happen.

-We are at the end of this interview, thank you so much for your time! Would you like to say something to your fans?
Have a good time and take it easy!

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Steve ‘N’ Seagulls interview

In 2014, thanks to some video on youtube, Steve ‘N’ Seagulls have captured the interest of many heavy metal lovers, but not only, with their bluegrass versions of well-known rock/metal songs.
After 3 years they have reached consents from all over the world, relesed 2 albums and been on tour in many countries.
We had the opportunity to meet Remmel and Pukki after their show at Porispere and talk about the idea behind the band, the possibility to hear some cover of Finnish metal sung in Finnish and much more.